{"id":10905,"date":"2007-05-22T18:09:49","date_gmt":"2007-05-23T01:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/05\/22\/farewell-to-falwell.html"},"modified":"2007-05-22T18:09:49","modified_gmt":"2007-05-23T01:09:49","slug":"farewell_to_falwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/22\/farewell_to_falwell.html","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to Falwell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

As thousands gathered to mourn Rev. Jerry Falwell<\/a> at his funeral today, I’ll point to this article<\/a> that looks back at Falwell’s earliest activism, and some of the founding impetus behind the Moral Majority.  Abortion and school prayer and homosexuality had little to do with it.<\/p>\n

\n

Decades before the forces that now make up the Christian right declared their culture war, Falwell was a rabid segregationist who railed against the civil rights movement from the pulpit of the abandoned backwater bottling plant he converted into Thomas Road Baptist Church. This opening episode of Falwell\u2019s life, studiously overlooked by his friends, na\u00efvely unacknowledged by many of his chroniclers, and puzzlingly and glaringly omitted in the obituaries of the Washington Post and New York Times, is essential to understanding his historical significance in galvanizing the Christian right. Indeed, it was race\u2013not abortion or the attendant suite of so-called \u201cvalues\u201d issues\u2013that propelled Falwell and his evangelical allies into political activism.<\/p>\n

As with his positions on abortion and homosexuality, the basso profondo preacher\u2019s own words on race stand as vivid documents of his legacy. Falwell launched on the warpath against civil rights four years after the Supreme Court\u2019s Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate public schools with a sermon titled \u201cSegregation or Integration: Which?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God\u2019s word and had desired to do the Lord\u2019s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made,\u201d Falwell boomed from above his congregation in Lynchburg. \u201cThe facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falwell\u2019s jeremiad continued: \u201cThe true Negro does not want integration\u2026. He realizes his potential is far better among his own race.\u201d Falwell went on to announce that integration \u201cwill destroy our race eventually. In one northern city,\u201d he warned, \u201ca pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Falwell didn’t start rallying the troops until (according to the author) governmental forces started to take aim at the racially segregated private schools that Falwell and his cohorts had established.<\/p>\n

\n

While abortion clinics sprung up across the United States during the early 1970s, evangelicals did little. No pastors invoked the Dred Scott decision to undermine the legal justification for abortion. There were no clinic blockades, no passionate cries to liberate the \u201cpre-born.\u201d For Falwell and his allies, the true impetus for political action came when the Supreme Court ruled in Green v. Connally to revoke the tax-exempt status of racially discriminatory private schools in 1971. Their resentment was compounded in 1971 when the Internal Revenue Service attempted to revoke the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University, which forbade interracial dating. (Blacks were denied entry until that year.) Falwell was furious, complaining, \u201cIn some states it\u2019s easier to open a massage parlor than to open a Christian school.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As we remember Rev. Falwell’s legacy, it’s worth remembering all of it.  And for those who wholeheartedly support his demonization of homosexuals and “secular culture,” consider how he used the same arguments earlier in life against racial integration and “civil wrongs” leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As thousands gathered to mourn Rev. Jerry Falwell at his funeral today, I’ll point to this article that looks back at Falwell’s earliest activism, and some of the founding impetus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10928,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/15\/rev_falwells_greatest_hit.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":0},"title":"Rev. Falwell’s Greatest Hits","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-May-07 8:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But before anyone thinks I'm getting all gooey-eyed over Jerry Falwell's passing, or wonders why anyone would feel any animus toward the fellow, Les points (a couple of links in)...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10929,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/15\/rip_rev_jerry_falwell.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":1},"title":"RIP, Rev. Jerry Falwell","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-May-07 2:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I will not mourn Rev. Falwell's passing from the American political scene, where I feel he did tremendous damage to our freedoms and common vision as a\u00a0united people, nor...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/falwell.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10900,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/23\/probably_not_what_jesus_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":2},"title":"Probably Not What Jesus Would Do","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-May-07 9:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Weird story here.\u00a0 A Liberty University student was\u00a0arrested at Jerry Falwell's funeral with some home-made incendiary bombs.\u00a0 But nobody seems to think it was to disrupt the funeral, but that...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8855,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/04\/how_disappointi.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":3},"title":"How disappointing","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Apr-06 9:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"John McCain cozies up to Jerry Falwell. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to hold someone like Mr. McCain \u2014 who is still widely regarded as a moderate, in spite of...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7792,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/10\/testing_times.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":4},"title":"Testing times","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Aug-05 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Does anyone actually listen to Jerry Falwell any more? Anyone, that is, besides the folks he manages to offend every time he opens his mouth? A Jewish organization is calling...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130939,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/22\/the-pastor-the-presumptive-and-the-playboy.html","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":5},"title":"The Pastor, the Presumptive, and the Playboy","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Jun-16 6:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Religious Right leader Jerry Falwall Jr was tickled to introduce Donald Trump at an evangelical summit today. So tickled, he had a picture taken in Trump's office of himself, Trump, Becki Falwell ... oh, and a framed edition of Trump's 1990 cover shot in Playboy.http:\/\/www.dailydot.com\/lol\/donald-trump-playboy-magazine-jerry-falwell-jr\/I'm not bothered myself by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Trump%2BPlayboy.PNGimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}