Jerry Falwell Jr.

Last weekend, Glenn Beck delivered the commencement address at Liberty University. 

Last night, Beck returned the favor and invited Jerry Falwell Jr. to be a guest on his Fox News program where the two engaged in a discussion about how President Obama is just like King George and is trying to take over the nation's churches:

BECK: My theory is, because somebody asked me today, why would they do this, Glenn, with social justice? Why would they do this? My theory is — and I'd love to hear your thought on this — is that they are already indoctrinating our children: There is no God. God is not playing a role. Churches are — and so it's already dying, but there is still gas left in tank. There's gas left in the tank with, you know, those of us who grew up in a different era where we looked at God.

These people are using the last bit of gas in that tank and they're burning it through, because we will become the Church of England or what the churches are in Europe, which is — they're empty.

FALWELL: I think it might be more insidious than that. When I read over the president's report last night on his faith-based initiative, it sounded more like a takeover — like we have seen with the banking industry, like with the auto industry, with like, health care.

And the reason I say that is because the word "partnership" was in there probably every other sentence ... [W]hen I hear the Obama administration talking about eliminating the charitable deduction, it just makes me suspicious that the next step is to take the place of the church.

...

[T]his proposal goes beyond that and it reminds me of what King George was doing in Colonial Virginia. He required all the citizens of colonial Virginia to be members of the Anglican Church, to pay tithes to the church and he appointed archbishop of the church. So he was helping God. He was doing something good — supposedly. But the real goal was power over the citizens and the State of Virginia.

Yesterday, we posted this AFP video report on what passes for science education at Liberty University, so I guess it is not a surprise that when Liberty U Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. promised students a special guest for convocation, it turned out to be infamous climate change-denier Christopher Monckton.

You really have to admire Liberty's interpretation of the visit.

First, read this Lynchburg News and Advance article entitled "Global-warming skeptic speaks at Liberty University":

British climate-change skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton took on the United Nations, Al Gore and the mainstream media during a talk at Liberty University’s student convocation Wednesday, in which he questioned the science behind climate-change research and called for an end to the “global warming panic" ... Monckton praised the late Rev. Jerry Falwell for his outspoken criticism of global warming and mocked Al Gore’s documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth,” calling it a “mawkish, science fiction, comedy horror movie.”

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Jerry Falwell Jr. said inviting Monckton to speak at Liberty was a way to expose students to both sides of the climate-change debate.

“A lot of our students come from public schools where the truth of global warming and the science of global warming is not always known,“ Falwell said after convocation.

Christians have a calling by God to protect the environment, Falwell added, and therefore should have a complete view of the global-warming debate.

“Many Christian young people are susceptible to the claims of the vast majority of environmentalists today who use pseudo-science to promote political agendas in the name of protecting the environment when their real goals are destroying freedom and destroying the economies of the western world,” he said later by e-mail. “Lord Monckton illustrated for our students in great detail how the hard left is doing just that around the world.”

...

Monckton is transparent about his lack of a science background.

“I have no scientific credentials whatsoever except a rather profitable knowledge of mathematics,” he said, adding that mathematics is the language of science.

Monckton said the “global warming panic” was responsible for countless deaths from starvation in Third World countries when Western nations shifted their priorities from growing food to growing biofuels.

“This is an outrage and a scandal that everyone at this university should oppose,” Monckton said.

Now compare that to this Liberty University article that provides a rather different account of the visit in a piece entitled "British royalty speaks on climate change":

On Wednesday, Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., promised students an unusual convocation and that is what they got. Lord Christopher Monckton, the first member of British royalty to speak at convocation, presented issues with the current climate change scare driven by prominent figures within the scientific and political communities.

Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute. He has held various prestigious titles — businessman, policy advisor, newspaper editor, writer, classical architect and puzzle inventor.

Monckton served as an advisor to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit and is a renowned advocate of Euro skepticism.

After first hearing Monckton on the Neal Boortz radio program a couple of years ago, Falwell said he knew he had to have him come and share with the students.

“He was so brilliant, so articulate and he was so politically incorrect on the issue of climate change,” Falwell said.

In introducing Monckton on Wednesday, Falwell encouraged students to consider the issues surrounding this false fear of climate change.

...

Students found the presentation both eye-opening and entertaining, as it called them to once again challenge majority opinion, media content and so-called scientific facts.

Monckton ended his appearance with a quote from former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, “‘The university should be a place of light, of liberty and of learning,’ and you are a place of light and of liberty and of learning.” He then participated in a question-and-answer session with students regarding global climate change.

The latest issue of Americans United's "Church and State" has a lengthy cover story by Rob Boston analyzing just who might step up to lead the Religious Right in the years to come, now that many of its well-known leaders have passed away and others are aging and scaling back their workloads.

Boston takes a look at a variety of potential candidates - including Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Tony Perkins, Rick Warren, Rod Parsley, and Rick Scarborough - but he starts off his list with Newt Gingrich:

The idea of Newt Gingrich as the next leader of the Religious Right is not as odd as it sounds. During his tenure as speaker of the House of Representatives, Gingrich was known mainly for his promotion of small government, low taxes and libertarian ideas, but a lot has changed since 1999; in recent years Gingrich has increasingly been stressing Religious Right themes.

The new push began in 2006 when Gingrich published a book titled Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation’s History, a tome that promotes a “Christian nation” history that’s always popular with the Religious Right.

In a recent interview with Dan Gilgoff of U.S. News & World Report, Gingrich talked about his desire to unite conservative evangelicals with traditionalist Roman Catholics in support of a broad conservative agenda.

Gingrich, Gilgoff reported, is traveling around the country speaking to clergy on behalf of David Barton, a Religious Right pseudo-historian who has written books promoting the theocratic “Christian nation” viewpoint.

“In the last few years I’ve decided that we’re in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans,” Gingrich told Gilgoff. “You’ve had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty.”

The ex-speaker added, “It’s time to challenge head-on secular domination in the West.”

Gingrich has formed a new organization, Renewing American Leadership, that partnered with the Rev. Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association to sponsor anti-tax rallies around the country on April 15. Although taxation is not traditionally a Religious Right issue, the push is a good example of Gingrich’s efforts to add to the “culture war” agenda and unite the various factions of the conservative movement.

I'd like to second Boston's assertion that Gingrich could very well become a leading figure within the Religious Right and I'll offer this recent email from the American Family Association up as evidence:

We fully expect someone like Huckabee to gladly associate himself with people such as Barton, Staver, Engle, and Falwell, becuase he has done so before and they were all big supporters of his presidential bid.

But, until recently at least, one person you would never see at a third-tier Religious Right event such as this was Gingrich.  His partnering with the AFA and Barton and now his participation in events like this all suggest that Gingrich is making a serious play to establish himself as a respected and influential player within the Religious Right, perhaps as part of his effort to unify the conservative movement ahead of his own potential presidential run.

The Roanoke Times has an interesting article on the changes taking place at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University as it seeks to broaden its appeal to potential students:

The college campus that the late Rev. Jerry Falwell founded is not known as a particularly fun-filled place. Falwell himself occasionally referred to Liberty University as a "Bible Boot Camp." But the school's new image includes ski boots -- and a $2 million synthetic slope.

Saying goodbye to some of its straight-laced stereotype, Liberty's fresh face also includes a track for off-road motorcycles, a paintball battlefield, an equestrian center with horse trails and organized student shopping trips to Richmond.

"Our mission was never to be a Bible school just training teachers," said Jerry Falwell Jr., a son of the founder who is Liberty's chancellor and president. He is leading a multimillion-dollar campaign called "Ultimate LU" to enhance the university's appeal to a broader range of prospective students.

I have a sneaking feeling that future classes might contain a fair number of students who were lured by Liberty's shiny new amenities and failed to do some basic research regarding LU's restrictive environment and mission to produce "champions for Christ": 

But Liberty's emphasis on spare-time diversions won't change its strict code of conduct, which includes possible reprimands and fines for such activities as attending dances, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex and viewing R-rated movies.

"We're known as a conservative religious school," Falwell acknowledged. The school's expansion of leisure options "can be done without compromising our Christian beliefs."

"We don't have coed dorms," he added. "We don't have beer bashes."

...

Outsiders did not suggest such nontraditional events for Liberty until recently, and the ideas might underscore a misperception of how much the school's personality is changing, said Chris Misiano, director of campus programming. "We're open" to new concepts, he said. "We're not wide open" ... Liberty officials still filter out HBO at the nearby Ramada Inn that the school leases and manages. Occasionally, Misiano hears someone voice a yearning for campus theaters to show R-rated movies.