« Jonathan Falwell
July 1, 2008
Gilmore Visits Liberty U
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.”
Posted by Chris at 10:12 AM | Permalink
June 25, 2008
Jonathan Falwell Weighs In on Judges
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.”
Posted by Chris at 3:31 PM | Permalink
February 11, 2008
Jerry Falwell Honored By VA Legislature
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."
Posted by Kyle at 11:26 AM | Permalink
February 7, 2008
The Straight Talk Express Veers Right
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.
Part One entails things like the McCain camp going out of their way to make it known that he has not been reaching out to those Religious Right leaders who might be warming up to him -- and having supporters like Phil Gramm blast his opponents as power-mad egomaniacs:
"I want to make the point that a lot of conservatives are coming home to McCain," says former senator Phil Gramm (Tex.), a McCain supporter. "But some aren't. Some just don't seem to understand that if they don't do this, it's going to hurt the party for a long time. They say they have principles, but some of it is their ego and power, too. They're well-known, and they're used to having power."
…
The incoming conservative fire against McCain has become a distraction, Gramm acknowledges. "Some people, in their own minds, think they have exerted a strong influence over the party, and now they are seeing that influence passing," he said. "There's some bitterness on their part. They're people who put their dogma in front of the interests of the country. . . . They don't like it that McCain is McCain."
Part Two entails quietly sending out proxies to woo them:
The effort to win over, or at least blunt the opposition, of talk-radio hosts and other movement figures who resent McCain’s maverick style and past departures from conservative orthodoxy involves both high-level surrogates and the candidate himself.
Its targets include the most influential talk-radio voice, Rush Limbaugh, who has been contacted in recent days by a McCain emissary, according to Republican sources.
The McCain campaign is also wooing Sean Hannity. At least two top McCain supporters, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), made the pitch to Hannity, who has a radio show in addition to co-hosting his nightly Fox News television program.
And hey, it looks like all the money McCain’s supporters forked over to help Sam Brownback pay off his campaign debt is paying dividends:
After quietly bowing out of the presidential race last fall, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) launched an aggressive effort to court socially conservative leaders who have expressed skepticism about the candidacy of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Brownback is heading McCain’s outreach to Catholic voters and is also one of McCain’s chief advisers on judicial nominations, helping to organize meetings between the candidate and national social conservative leaders. Brownback has met with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Father Frank Pavone, a leader in the anti-abortion rights movement, to enlist their support.
On Thursday, Brownback will attend [the] Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual convention of conservative activists in Washington, to tout McCain. He will then travel home to persuade voters to support McCain in the Kansas caucus scheduled for Saturday.
In addition to this two-pronged strategy, McCain is also doing some good old fashioned personal pandering and courting one special Religious Right leader directly:
Conservative Christian leaders in Virginia have been fairly quiet about the state’s presidential primaries Tuesday, but the Republican candidates haven’t forgotten them.
The Rev. Jonathan Falwell, son of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, said Wednesday that he had talked with John McCain within the past 24 hours. Falwell said he wasn’t ready to endorse a candidate, but wanted to hear more from the Arizona senator on the issues.
McCain’s phone call to him resulted from discussions he’s had with the candidate’s campaign staff over the past couple of months, Falwell said.
One remaining test for McCain is how to deal with Pat Robertson, the one “agent of intolerance” whom he hasn’t yet embraced …. and don’t think that has gone unnoticed:
Asked by CNN's Glenn Beck on Tuesday if he would vote for McCain, Robertson said: "I still have my misgivings. I'm not sure I can or not. I haven't made up my mind yet for sure."
McCain branded Robertson and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance" during a campaign speech in Virginia Beach in 2000, days before Virginia's primary election.
"We are the party of Ronald Reagan, not Pat Robertson," McCain said at the time. He said he was not dismissing evangelicals, only "a few of their self-appointed leaders."
…
"I had spent years and lots of money getting him and his buddies and his chairman on various Senate committees. And then to have him come down to my city and make a statement like that, it was outrageous."
Granted, Robertson’s endorsement didn’t do much to help Rudy Giuliani, so perhaps his support isn’t vital. But as long as McCain and his associates are trying to have it both ways and are out there making nice with fringe figures like Frank Pavone and Jonathan Falwell, they may as well just apologize to Robertson. That way Robertson can finally move on with his life and McCain can get back to working the media on his Straight Talk Express.
Posted by Kyle at 2:34 PM | Permalink
October 21, 2007
Dobson Drama and Prayers for a Political Miracle in 08
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.
Dobson voiced his frustration with the GOP, griping that in spite of Bush in the White House and control of Congress for six years, the Republicans “did almost nothing.” Dobson echoed complaints from throughout the weekend that the Republican Party had taken the movement for granted, paraphrasing Richard Viguerie’s analogy that the GOP had treated the Religious Right like a mistress – “they need us to get elected but want us to act like we don’t know them if we meet them on the street.”
Dobson recognized the great anxiety in the movement over the lack of a consensus presidential candidate to rally around, and about the prospects of a Democratic sweep in 2008. There is an “ominous feeling” that there are “gathering storm clouds” – by which he meant “there is at least the possibility that the far, far left is going to capture the triple crown in 2008 – that means the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, it means all the offices of government…of course it would mean the Supreme Court will quickly change and that could set the direction of the dominant branch of government for 30 years.” He added that the scenario might include statehouses across the country.
Of that “catastrophic” possibility, Dobson shouted “We can’t let that happen!”
BUT, Dobson made clear that he wouldn’t budge from his pledge not to back Giuliani if he becomes the GOP nominee. (Perkins did the same at the afternoon press conference.) Dobson said he still has videotape from a 1988 rally in Washington at which he said, “I will never for the rest of my life cast a single vote for anyone who would kill an innocent baby.” Are we so terrified of the prospect of losing he asked, that we will “turn our backs on 45 million unborn children whose blood calls out to us?”
On the issue of marriage, Dobson said it was “on the ropes” and in far more danger than people realized, in spite of the victories in 2004 and 2006. “Our families are in greater danger now than they ever have been,” he said, saying that the legislature in New Jersey now has the votes to create same-sex marriage. Dobson predicted that if New Jersey legislators vote for marriage and aren’t punished at the polls, elected officials will create same-sex marriage in a number of states, including Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, and California. “You’re going to have same-sex marriage spread all across the country and establish families and it will be gone – marriage as we have known it will be gone.” Without mentioning Fred Thompson by name, Dobson rejected his “federalist” opposition to a federal constitutional amendment, insisting that marriage had to be defined in the U.S. Constitution. “Are we now going to throw [marriage] on the ash-heap of history?" he thundered. "I say NO! Do you agree?” Attendees leapt to their feet cheering.
Echoing themes from Huckabee’s remarks earlier in the day, Dobson took on those who say the movement should, if necessary to prevent Democratic wins, set aside its moral beliefs and principles because the consequences of losing in 2008 would be so great. The problem with voting for the lesser of two evils, he said, “is you have still chosen evil.”
Dobson was clearly hurt by the reaction he has received to the news reports about the threat to abandon the GOP, saying that people had been mean to him:
"I’m not trying to tell everyone else how to vote...We’re not in the general election yet – we’re in a primary. Two days after my op- ed, the New York Times ran a poll that they had taken that said 60 percent of white evangelical Christians said they will not vote for someone who believes in abortion – so I’ve got a lot of company. But for three weeks I have been skewered…never in 30 years have I been criticized like I have for this position. Some of you have been angry with me, and some of you may be tonight…There is a possibility that we’ll have somebody in the White House that we cannot tolerate but we’ll have to."
Perhaps not wanting to send off a couple of thousand activists with confusion and disunity as the final word, Dobson said there are “so many reasons for optimism.”
He said the movement was winning the hearts and minds of the American people, citing recent polls showing that a majority of Americans believe that abortion is morally wrong. And he insisted that “the Democrats are not a shoe-in no matter what you are hearing in the media.”
“The big x-factor in this situation is prayer,” he said, noting that his wife Shirley heads the (supposedly nonpartisan) National Day of Prayer. “They’re going to mobilize,” he said.
“Prayer makes a difference. That’s what the polling people don’t take into consideration. Because we’ve seen it before. Miracles do occur.”
Program Notes:
Fitting an event that felt like the passing of leadership to a new generation, the invocation was given by the late Jerry Falwell's son Jonathan, who has taken over his dad's Thomas Road Baptist Church.
Until Dobson took the stage, the program was what you’d expect. Tributes, in person and on video, from old friends and fellow culture warriors like Chuck Colson, Ed Meese, Don Wildmon, and Gary Bauer; colleagues like Perkins and Jim Daly, Dobson’s successor as president of Focus on the Family; family memories from Dobson’s son and daughter, and warm words from his wife of 47 years. Don Hodel gave Dobson credit for putting George W. Bush in the White House twice by encouraging conservative evangelicals to turn out for him in 2000 and 2004.
One speaker was FRC board member and deep-pockets funder Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, whose son Erik Prince founded and leads Blackwater Security, which has been enriched by Bush administration contracts and has been the center of controversy over the actions of its contractors in Iraq.
Lee Greenwood of “Proud to be an American” fame provided entertainment. He closed his set with that signature song, not-so-humbly referring to it as “the nation’s anthem.” Attendees treated it as if it were the national anthem, rising to their feet and standing as he sang, a few with hands held up as if in prayer.
Posted by Peter at 1:14 PM | Permalink
August 22, 2007
Sons of the Father
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]
Posted by Kyle at 4:28 PM | Permalink
July 11, 2007
'Next Generation' of Religious-Right Leaders Gather to Meet with Arabs
Sons Jonathan Falwell, Gordon Robertson, Paul Crouch Jr. join Cizik, Hinn, Ralph Reed.Posted by Ezra at 11:45 AM | Permalink