Posts on Jonathan Falwell

I just wrote a post about the traditional claim from Religious Right leaders and activists that their votes are beholden to God and not tied to any one particular party.  It's an obvious fraud, as demonstrated by the fact that they'd rather vote for Satan than a Democrat, but it's what they have to say to convince themselves that they are somehow more principled than your run-of-the-mill partisan voter.

In my last post, I didn't provide any concrete examples of this contradiction because it is frankly so prevalent that I didn't think it really needed any.  But then I came across this article that perfectly sums up exactly what I was taking about:

From wall to wall, each pew was full on the Sunday before Election Day at Thomas Road Baptist Church.

“It is Election Day on Tuesday. We as Christians and we as Americans- this is something that we have been paying attention to,” said Pastor Jonathan Falwell.

Falwell introduced a friend, former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee – who the pastor previously endorsed. Huckabee, known as a conservative Republican, says he wants people to vote Christian.

“I would never use a pulpit of the church to try to tell people to vote Democrat or Republican or which candidate. That’s something they have to decide on their own conscience. But I never would hesitate to say vote on your principles,” Huckabee said.

He said parties are not as important and church members we talked to agree.

“Dr. Fallwell [says] don’t vote Republican, don’t vote Democrat, vote Christian. That’s how I voted,” said Linley Harrison.

If you just read that part, you'd think there might actually be something to this right-wing claim that they vote on their Christian principles regardless of party affiliation.  But then you read the rest of the article and find out that the church was passing out pro-McCain voting guides from the American Family Association and had McCain surrogates in attendance who were making the case for him:

The church passed out flyers from the American Family Association that listed key issues and whether McCain or Obama support or oppose them. Many in the congregation say it is Republicans like Huckabee who support the issues most crucial to them.

...

One of John McCain’s fellow POW’s during the Vietnam War was also at the service. Orson Swindle has been friends with John McCain now for 37 years. He was by his side in captivity, and now he’s helping in the campaign ... Two more of McCain’s fellow POW’s were also at the service.

VA Senate candidate Jim Gilmore “campaigned at a celebration hosted by Thomas Road Baptist Church” and promised to “fight to reduce energy costs and rising gas prices.” Although Jonathan Falwell “stopped shy of publicly endorsing Gilmore,” he did urge listeners “to go find out what this man stands for and find out what his opponent stands for and then you vote for the person whom most closely resembles what you believe.”

Baptist Press: “The next president is going to nominate at least two and maybe more Supreme Court justices. When Dad started the Moral Majority back in the late '70s, he had a vision, he had a plan to bring our country to the point where abortion on demand would no longer be legal. We are so close, with President Bush putting [Samuel] Alito and [John] Roberts onto the court, we are one vote away from a court that would be a strict constructionist court (and) not one that tries to legislate from the bench… So, for people -- even conservatives -- to say that Sen. McCain is not the perfect candidates and therefore we're just going to stay home, that's not a wise move and I don't think Dad would support that move.”

As his son Jonathan explained: "I was privileged on Thursday to deliver the opening prayer at the Virginia House of Delegates meeting in Richmond, on a day in which the House and Senate passed a resolution honoring my father for his service to our state and to the worldwide Christian community. The Virginia legislators, noting that Dad was 'one of America’s most influential leaders' and 'a man of remarkable faith,' passed a resolution honoring him for his efforts in founding and leading Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC), Liberty University and many affiliate ministries. It was certainly humbling to stand in the majestic chamber in Richmond as we listened to Dad’s life being described with great reverence."

As everyone knows by this point, the Right does not like John McCain and the McCain camp finds itself in a quandary of how to appease hostile right-wing leaders without losing his most valuable asset: his media-concocted reputation as a “straight-talkin’ maverick” who refuses to pander for votes.  

He needs to do it and will do it – but unfortunately for McCain, while some leaders of the right-wing base he needs seem willing to given him an opportunity to win them over, they don’t seem particularly eager to make it easy for him:

A prominent social conservative, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, said in an interview, “I’m willing to sit down and say we all make mistakes if he will come to the conclusion that some of the things he has worked on in the past, like McCain-Feingold, which in some ways the courts have deconstructed,” were mistakes. He added, “He must make social conservatives feel that he, No. 1, understands their issues; No. 2, believes in their issues; and No. 3, will advance them as president.”

Well, that ought to be easy - all he has to do repudiate his entire carefully-crafted reputation … and then beg their forgiveness:

One influential social conservative, Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, said ''it's a stretch'' that McCain could assuage the concerns of social conservatives, but two things could help: 'If he says, ‘I was wrong, I'm sorry, please forgive me,' '' on the federal marriage amendment and embryonic stem-cell research. “That would be huge.''

So what is the McCain campaign’s strategy for dealing with this dilemma?  Apparently, it is two-fold:  having some surrogates out there suggesting that McCain has no intention of placating the Right while sending others out to do the pandering and apologizing for him.

The Saturday gala honoring Focus on the Family founder James Dobson started with a hint at the controversy over the announcement of Mitt Romney as the straw poll’s winner. Only the overall results had been announced to attendees earlier in the day. It was at a subsequent news conference that FRC distributed documents making clear that Huckabee won by a large margin among people who voted in person, and in the hours since Huckabee partisans were grumbling. FRC’s Chuck Donovan promised that everyone would get a detailed vote accounting as they left the event.

When Dobson took the stage he claimed that the media had been telling everybody that the pro-family and pro-life movements are dying, and to the media still in attendance, said, “Welcome to the morgue.” Dobson also complained about media reports of a closed-door meeting of conservative religious leaders at which Dobson and more than 40 others pledged that if neither party nominated a pro-life candidate they would vote for a minor party candidate, kicking off weeks of controversy and infighting. Dobson said reports that the group would try to create a third party were wrong, saying he agrees with Gary Bauer that a third-party would be political suicide and would limit the ability to influence the GOP.

In an email, the Virigina Family Foundation and Pastors for Family Values say they are "pleased to announce that Pastor Jonathan Falwell, son of Reverend Jerry Falwell and newly installed senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, will be the keynote luncheon speaker at our first Pastors Family Issues Summit, to be held Tuesday, September 11, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. in Richmond." Flyer here. [PDF]

Sons Jonathan Falwell, Gordon Robertson, Paul Crouch Jr. join Cizik, Hinn, Ralph Reed.