A Retrospective
If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.—Rev Jerry Falwell
And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who have tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this happen.”—Rev Jerry Falwell, blaming civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, quoted from John F Harris, “God Gave US ‘What We Deserve,’ Falwell Says,” The Washington Post (September 14, 2001)
I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!—Rev Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved, 1979 pp. 52-53, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.—Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.—Rev Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976
If we are going to save America and evangelize the world, we cannot accommodate secular philosophies that are diametrically opposed to Christian truth … We need to pull out all the stops to recruit and train 25 million Americans to become informed pro-moral activists whose voices can be heard in the halls of Congress. I am convinced that America can be turned around if we will all get serious about the Master’s business. It may be late, but it is never too late to do what is right. We need an old-fashioned, God-honoring, Christ-exalting revival to turn American back to God. America can be saved!—Jerry Falwell, “Moral Majority Report” for September, 1984
There is no separation of church and state. Modern US Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the Founders had in mind in the First Amendment to the Constitution.—Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
The Bible is the inerrant … word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible,without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc.—Jerry Falwell, Finding Inner Peace and Strength
The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior.—Jerry Falwell, Listen, America!
Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.—Jerry Falwell, on CNN’s Crossfire, May 17, 1997
I do not believe the homosexual community deserves minority status. One’s misbehavior does not qualify him or her for minority status. Blacks, Hispanics, women, etc., are God-ordained minorities who do indeed deserve minority status.—Rev Jerry Falwell, USA Today Chat, quoted from The Religious Freedom Coalition, “The Two faces of Jerry Falwell”
Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan.—Rev Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews.—Rev Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
tags: jesus and friends
Is there something about Billy Graham I don’t know? Or is it just crazy celebrity hate-evangelist jealousy going on there?
Yeah, I don’t know what to say about Falwell, except that I’m glad he’s not living about an hour away from me anymore. I guess I’ll take the moral high road and not say anything, since his karma will serve him well enough.
— Emily May 14, 02:45 PM #
This man has caused me to weep in anger more than anyone. How someone can call themself a man of God and be so rigid and closed is beyond me.
Rev. Graham is 100 times the man and Christian Mr. Falwell ever was.
As a Christian, I am supposed to hope and pray that he was right with God before he died, but I don’t have the capacity to forgive that Christ does. I hope he is forgotten.
— rootietoot May 14, 04:15 PM #
I’m not real sure what the Graham thing is about. Probably something along these lines.
— Veronica May 14, 04:36 PM #
Rev Graham preaches a message of forgiveness and that God is available to anyone who seeks Him. This does not set well with many, because they believe certain sins are unforgiveable.
— rootietoot May 15, 05:49 AM #
I thought Falwell was SBC, too? Don't get me wrong, I have quite a bit of respect for Graham, who seems to mostly be a decent human being when it's all said and done, but theologically? What sort of difference would there really have been?
The major difference seems to be that Graham isn't a raging ass hat.
— Veronica May 15, 10:59 AM #
Yeah, that’s the major difference.
Saying they’re both SBC is like saying Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy are both Democrats. It’s a large organization, made of humans with all their diversity of belief. It’s just that Falwell was very vocal and charismatic, so he’s what everyone sees and imagines to be the face of the SBC.
Graham is a genuinely humble man who’s only agenda is to introduce people to Christ. He has said many times that he’s uncomfortable being revered, and he tries to keep the message and focus off himself and on Jesus Christ.
— rootietoot May 15, 11:50 AM #
Well, I’m not and never have been Southern Baptist, but they do actually seem to have 2 constants: 1.) that each congregation is an independent body unto itself, and 2.) that baptism (bein’ SAVED!) undoes any sin you may have committed before finding your way to Christ. I mean, if Graham and Falwell actually had any theological differences it seems like they’d disagree not over the power of God to wash sins away, but over the ability of God to acknowledge other paths to salvation. From what I know about Graham, he basically just says, “God can do what He wants” about Christians of other denominations and people of other faiths. Whereas Falwell seemed to be under the impression that God worked the way that Falwell said he worked.
— Veronica May 15, 12:26 PM #
The SBC, I believe, in recent decades, became allied to the far political right as well as the Republican party due to a very specific campaign by very specific and aggressive people; and yeah, that would probably have something to do with the hostility between Falwell and Graham. Graham’s spoken (his) Truth to Power, and stood by its side, but he didn’t use the pulpit as politically as Falwell did.
mostly, he was popular, and he wasn’t under Falwell’s thumb, and as such Falwell would’ve considered him a threat: that’s how authoritarians work
— belledame222 May 15, 04:32 PM #
technically speaking, accepting Christ as your savior is what saves you, and baptism is simply a public declaration of that salvation. technically. There are some Baptists that believe baptism is a literal washing away of sin, and therefore get baptised repeatedly. For most, however, it’s a once in a lifetime thing, like (theoretically)marriage.
— rootietoot May 17, 11:27 AM #
Thank you for these quotes. This was the best post I’ve read about Big Jerry yet, and all in his own words too.
With words like that, you don’t really need to add a thing, do you?
— more cowbell May 17, 04:18 PM #
Yeah, he really does speak for himself.
— Veronica May 17, 04:35 PM #
Sure does.
Hope you don’t mind, I just linked to your post from my site. (well, ok, not actually linked—still haven’t figured out the whole trackback or whatever the hell that process is.)
— more cowbell May 17, 04:38 PM #
Rev. Graham is also one of the very few evangelists whose financial books are completely open for public inspection.
— Bubbas' Nightmare May 18, 08:25 AM #