Is lying a moral issue, Reverend?

Here is fundamentalist minister, Rick Warren on Larry King's show adamantly insisting that he was not involved in the Proposition 8 campaign in any way. Included in his litany of ways in which he was not anti-gay marriage was the claim that he "never once issued a statement and never once gave an endorsement" to Prop 8. Listen, let his words burn into your brain so that you are absolutely clear about what he is saying. Now watch the next video.



Notice that he is very clearly endorsing Proposition 8, the very thing he went on national television to deny that he ever did. He said here: "Let me make this very clear. We support Proposition 8." The man obviously lied to Larry King. Apparently, while Warren will speak out on "moral issues" it appears that lying is not a moral issue to him. If you want something really hilarious look at the screen capture below.
The man says that a court of "four guys" made the decision then to illustrate his point he holds up three fingers. Hilarious. In you put that in a parody of Warren you would be accused of unfairly making him look stupid. But what happens when the real life is like a parody?

His second flub, a Freudian slip I suggest, was when he went to say that the judges changed the definition of Christian marriage, not marriage. He quickly tried to drop the word Christian from his comments—it gave away too much.

All we can conclude from the two videos is that either Rick Warren has severe memory problems, bordering on Alzheimer's, or he intentionally lied to Larry King, and to the millions of television viewers. Unless there is a medical condition explaining this major lapse of memory, the second thing we can conclude is that Warren does not consider lying to be a moral issue as long as he is the one doing the lying.

This reminds of me of something that I witnessed some years ago when I was young and arrogant, as opposed to now, when I'm old and cranky. In a previous occupation I was sent to cover a Moral Majority rally in Indianapolis ,which was called to pass a piece of legislation called "The Right to Decency Bill." The law had been proposed by Rev. Don Boys, a member of the state legislature. Boys was a Republican, of course, and a pastor with the Indianapolis Baptist Temple, run by an odious theocrat named Greg Dixon. The legislation specifically called for making it a felony to be gay in the state of Indiana. It never passed but that was the intent of the law. At this rally, to promote this legislation, the two main draws were Jerry Falwell and Anita Bryant (someday I will have to share my "day with Anita" story).

There was a march for the bill by angry, hateful, fundamentalists (but I am being redundant). They rally that evening capped off the day set aside to push for this law. There was nothing ambiguous about the rally, or its purpose, or what this law would have done. I taped much of the rally, as well as several interviews with people attending, as part of my job.

About a week or two later Jerry Falwell was holding a press conference, which unfortunately I was only viewing on television, and not attending. At that conference Falwell was asked about the extreme anti gay views his organization took. Falwell looked into the camera and lied. He said that Moral Majority never opposed legitimate rights for gay people at all, they just opposed "special rights." I should also note that Dixon had been the recent vice president of Moral Majority, and still held the position of National Secretary at the time of the rally, which Falwell spoke at. In addition Dixon was the head of the Moral Majority in Indiana.

Unless, by some bizarre form of logic, Falwell really believed that NOT going to jail is a "special right" then he was blatantly lying. He told that lie repeatedly in press conferences ever after that. And guess what? He got away with it. Journalists may have a liberal bias, but they more often have a lazy bias, and research is not something they like doing. Even a cursory look at Falwell's record would show that he lied.

About a year later I went up against Dixon in the first of three discussions we were supposed to have on a large radio station. Dixon started out the discussion telling porkers about his views on the rights of gay people. What he didn't know was that I had brought with me various tape recordings of him preaching from his own pulpit. In those sermons he specifically said that gays should either be killed or put in prison and that this was God's will. When Dixon started out with the same sort of lie that Falwell got away with, we were prepared and simply played the tape of his own sermons. Dixon was furious. He fumed and screamed for most of the rest of the show. Come day of the second broadcast he never showed up. Though we did get flooded with his supporters claiming the show was biased since Dixon was on it.

If you wonder why I believe that fundamentalists are rather immoral people, their willingness to lie is one reason. I saw it up close on numerous occasions. They have their theology and the world must be twisted to fit it. If that requires them to tell a few porkers along the way, they consider it necessary for their "higher calling." I don't believe they have a higher calling and that they are just confused, bigoted and dishonest. Confused is not a moral issue. But their dishonest and bigotry is.

The Lies of Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell was an unpleasant man politically. Personally he could be charming. No surprise there. Often the worst people in history could charm crowds and individuals. That does not exonerate them. If anything it makes them even more dangerous. Falwell was rather typical in that sense. Certainly on the occasions that I dealt with him he could be charming.

Of course Falwell’s less than charming side is well known. His theocratic positions have been documented. Some of Falwell’s mind-numbed students at his misnamed “Liberty University” said Falwell will be remembered well because he was never caught in a moral scandal. I guess if, like many a fundamentalist, you only consider morality as what one does with their genitals, that might be true. If morality includes honesty matters are entirely different.

But Jerry Falwell is a liar. Now I don’t mean his political and religious opinions when I say that. Those, I think, are just wrong. They are based on false premises. When I say Falwell is a liar I mean he has made public statements about facts which where the said something he knew wasn’t true. He intentionally lied about things. In all the cases I know of he did it for public relations purposes. He would deny things that were true in order to make himself look better to the public. Perhaps it was vanity. Perhaps he had other motivations. Either way he lied.

Deborah Caldwell of Beliefnet writes how Falwell charmed her. She even called him sincere and mentioned how Falwell bragged that he could turn anyone into a friend. She told how he told her he doesn’t even care if his students “watched R-rated movies.” Caldwell apparently believed him. It made Falwell appear so human and even “kind” to this reporter who had been sent to write a story about Falwell.

But it wasn’t true.

Jayson Whitehead wrote about himself, his father and Falwell. He describes his father as “a leading Christian attorney” who “was enlisted” to defend Falwell on several occasions. One of the perks daddy received was that Jayson was sent to Falwell’s university free of charge. Jayson says this “made it easier on my dad’s bank account” but “it was torture for me.” He described the university as “a highly regulated center where the stress was on what you could not do, sinful things like see R-rated movies, drink alcohol, have a TV in your room, listen to secular music or cuss. All these things were against the rule and a violation meant demerits and often suspension.”

So Falwell tells Caldwell he doesn’t mind if students watch R-rated films and a former student of his, a son of a major figure on the Religious Right (John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institutes) says that students could be suspended for seeing R-rated films. Who is right?

Whitehead’s account is accurate. Caldwell’s account is accurate but then she only reported what Falwell told her and Falwell lied. Could it be that Falwell didn’t mind such movies but his university overrode his wishes and imposed standards he didn’t want? No. I speak as one who knew these people well. Falwell set the rules for his university. This is typical of these fundamentalist megachurches where the pastor is a dictator. His schools are run his way.

At one point Falwell even condemned G-rated films. He said: “We do not even condone the so-called ‘good’ movies since they also contribute to the support of an industry which is basically corrupt. it is never right to accentuate the good in order to tolerate the evil.”

Whitehead’s account is easily verified by reading the code of conduct for students at Liberty University, where liberty is in short supply. Students could be expelled for reprimands and the school’s office of the Inquisition listed the various sins for which students would be reprimanded. Students would receive 12 reprimands and a $50 fine for “attendance at, possession or viewing of,, an R, NC-17 or X rated movie.”

Other crimes included “Deception” something which would get Falwell expelled from his own university; “participation in an unathoriized petition or demonstration;” “entering the residence hallway of the opposite sex or allowing the same;”

One could get 30 reprimands, a $500 fine and 30 hours of “disciplinary community service for “immorality”, “witchcraft,” “possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages” or spending the night with someone of the opposite sex. Reprimands could also be earned for missing curfew, having hair that is too long (for boys), “music code violation”, “possession and/or use of tobacco” and “attendance at a dance.” It seems Mr. Whitehead’s account is quite accurate.

Falwell didn’t mind bending the truth. I first caught on to this during the heydays of Falwell’s Moral Majority. One of their national officers was an odious fundamentalist minister from Indianapolis named Greg Dixon. Dixon ran a megachurch similar to Falwell’s and they were close friends.

I went to Indianapolis to write about Dixon and his crusade. One of Dixon’s subordinates from the church, Rev. Don Boys, was elected as a Republican to the state legislature. One of the first tasks Boys undertook was a “Right to Decency” bill which would have made being gay a felony. As he put it: “We want homosexuality to once again be a crime.” He said: “I don’t hate perverts; I just want to see them in jail away from decent, innocent people. That’s what my bill to reinstate sodomy as a crime would have done.”

Moral Majority official Dixon was all in favor of the bill. In fact he actually wanted to go much further. On numerous occasions he preached that he wanted gay people executed. I had tape recordings of him saying just that and I confronted Dixon with those tapes on a national radio show. He tried to weasel around it a bit but he finally admitted: “Moral Majority, I feel, would take the position that homosexuality is a perversion and should be a felony... From a practical standpoint you’re never going to get capital punishment for homosexuality but the Bible would certainly stand by a society that would be willing to do that.”

So Dixon and Boys, both active officials in Falwell’s group wanted gay people arrested and imprisoned if not executed. And Boys introduced a bill to mandate a prison sentence for homosexuals. To try and push this legislation through Dixon organized a “Rally for Decency” in Indianapolis. The entire purpose of this rally was to make homosexuality a felony. Dixon brought in anti-gay campaigner Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell was the key speaker at this rally. Falwell urged people to get behind the legislation. Meanwhile at the same time another Moral Majority spokesman, Dean Wycoff, was out in California saying: “I believe in capital punishment, and I believe homosexuality is one of those crimes that could be coupled with murder and other sins.”

The Falwellians were quite clear. Homosexuals should be stripped of their rights and imprisoned because they are gay. That was when in a good mood. In a bad mood they wanted gays executed. As Rev. Dixon preached: “I say either fry ‘em or put them in the pen. Don’t unleash them [gays] on the human race.” This man, the National Secretary of Falwell’s group said: “When they say homosexuals should have their civil rights I ask one question: Do you give criminals rights like honest citizens? Absolutely not! Criminals do not have their civil rights.”

Just days after this rally, where Falwell endorsed legislation to incarcerate gay people, the good reverend was in Chicago. He gave a speech at the City Club. He was again asked about his views of gay rights. His answer would be surprising in view of what he had proposed just a couple days earlier. Now he claimed that he had no desire to take away rights from people for being gay he was just “against special rights” for homosexuals. The legislation he endorsed would have turned homosexuality into a felony. He was the keynote speaker at a rally for that legislation. But when the media questioned him he tells the complete opposite of the truth. In other words, he lied.

I have heard Falwell say he was opposed to theocracy and that his Moral Majority did not propose theocracy. Yet I had tapes of the national convention of the Moral Majority. Remember Falwell was the founder and leader of the group. Falwell was at the convention. He heard what his own speakers were proposing. One such speaker was an old minister named W.E. Dowell. Dowell was selected because he used to be Falwell’s minister. And Dowell was totally honest about what Moral Majority was proposing?

Newspapers asking Brother Jerry Falwell today, several time they've asked him this. "Well, wont it be something like it is over in Iran - you religious people taking over -become a religious system." I said, I don't know what he said, but if it had been me I'd said, well the other crowd's had it long enough and they failed, and made such a terrible blot of it, it's time somebody take over.

Dowell said this with Falwell there. And how did the Moral Majority ministers respond to this open call for theocracy? They cheered and applauded. Falwell himself had said he had “a divine mandate from God to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will save America.” Falwell’s press conference was a front. He said in public what he thought needed to be said. He claimed that he had no desire to strip gay people of any rights at all just days after calling for legislation to have them imprisoned.

In 1984 Falwell participated in a television show. In the audience was an old friend from his Bible school days, Jerry Sloan. Falwell used to spend “many Sunday dinners with his feet under our table” wrote Sloan.

Sometime prior to this show Sloan was watching Falwell’s church broadcast. In that show Falwell spoke about the Metropolitan Community Church. He said:

“Look at the Metropolitan Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted into the World Council fo Churches recently, the National Council of Churches almost, the vote was against them, but they will try again and again until they get in and the tragedy is that they would get one vote because they are spoken of here in Jude as being brute beasts, that is, going to the baser lust of the flesh to live immorality. And so, Jude describes this as apostasy. Thank God this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

Sloan was so surprised by the remark he went out and bought a VCR so he could record the sermon later that day during a rebroadcast.

At this television show Sloan asked Falwell why he made this remark. “As I tried to get the quote out,” said Sloan, “Falwell kept interrupting me and said what I was saying was ‘an absolute lie.’” Falwell “was extremely agitated” and kept denying that he had every said any such thing. And he told Sloan he would give him $5,000 if he could prove that Falwell ever said these remarks.

A couple of days later Sloan returned to the TV show with the video tape in question. In addition he had an audio tape of the sermon in question produced by Falwell’s own ministry. As Sloan said: “At least three times Falwell said I was lying so it was a matter of personal honor for me to produce the tape and show that he was the only one lying, the $5,000 would just be icing on the cake.”

Sloan had an attorney write Falwell saying that the check for $5,000 should be mailed to them as Falwell promised if the tape is produced. He was directed to his own tape recording of the sermon as additional evidence. Even though Falwell said he would pay the money if the tape were produced his attorney “wrote us a letter basically saying it would be a cold day in you-know-where before he gave me $5,000.” So apparently Falwell was lying about that as well.

Falwell was scheduled to return to California for fundraising and Sloan and his attorney filed a law suit for “breach of an oral contract”. Falwell promised to pay $5,000 if it be could be proven he had lied about those statements. It was proven he lied and he now refused to pay up. In other words the promise was a lie as well. A suit was filed in court just a few hours before Falwell landed in Sacramento. Falwell was served with legal papers and the media was told about the event.

From there things got worse for Falwell. When the case went to court the local municipal judge ruled in favor of Sloan. Falwell attacked saying that because the judge was Jewish he had a “natural prejudice” against Falwell as a Christian. This was mild considering that Falwell said the “Antichrist” was Jewish.

Even though Falwell lost the suit he still refused to pay the $5,000 he promised. Instead he appealed but he lost the appeal and was order to pay an additional $2875 plus interest. A few months later Falwell paid up. To be precise, he didn’t pay up. Even though he personally made the promise to pay he had the money taken out of Moral Majority funds.

Jerry Falwell was a manipulator. He would say one thing in one situation and a very different thing someplace else. He did not hesitate to deny statements he had made. Or he would claim he was being misquoted. Yet Falwell knew what he had said. But he also knew that the American public wouldn’t take kindly to some of his more extreme statements. So for the sake of PR he would lie or hedge the facts in order to make himself look better.

Now none of these lies strike me as “major sins” but they are sufficiently deceptive to have one of his students reprimanded and perhaps expelled from Liberty University. I do think Falwell committed some very great sins. But what I see as sins he sees as virtues. He was mean-spirited and bigoted. He spent much of his early ministry fighting civil rights for blacks and the rest of his ministry opposing equality for gay people. I think that is a moral shortcoming. He believed things I think are false. It is is right to do so but he lobbied hard to use state coercion to impose his morality on others. I think that is a major moral shortcoming. But in Falwell’s own extensive list of sins these don’t get much play. But even fundamentalist Christians say that lying is a sin. And Falwell. He distorted facts in order to make his ministry look good. By my own standards Falwell is condemn several times over. Here I just wanted to show that by his own standards he also stands condemned.

Falwell follower arrested with bombs.

One of Jerry Falwell's followers, a student at Falwell's Liberty University, has been arrested. Mark Uhl, 19, was apprehended with six explosive devices. Police say he told his family he had made the bombs and that he planned to attend Falwell's funeral. But the police insist that the funeral was not a target for disruption by Uhl.

The police also say there are indications that others were involved with Uhl in the bomb making and investigations continue. ABC News reports that the targets for the bombs were anti-Falwell protesters. ABC says Uhl "reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service." Three other suspects are currently being sought by police.

Jerry Falwell wasn't a big fan of free speech either. And the Right tries to tell us that American Fundamentalists don't use bombs! Uhl isn't the first either. I have to wonder if Alberto Gonzales is going to recommend that Bush authorize the use of torture on Uhl in order to secure more information about the bomb plot.

Update: I suspected as much and news accounts now confirm that the protesters who would have been the object of Uhl's bombs were the cult members from the odious Westboro Baptist Church -- a truly sad lot of people. It is also revealed that Uhl and the three other suspects who are being sought were all together in an ROTC program (Reserved Office Training Corps) which the military sets up in schools to recruit kids into the military. One of the suspects is currently in the military.

Uhl was also a member of the ROTC program at Falwell's school and was planning to become a military chaplain. The military has been a prime target of fundamentalists in recent years causing numerous problems. The Air Force Academy had a major investigation because fundamentalists had apparently taken over and used their positions there inappropriately to recruit people into their churches. At a VA Hospital another fundamentalist chaplain is lying low after a Jewish soldier complained of constant harassment. The orthodox Jew was also denied kosher food and staff refused to call his rabbi for him to bring kosher food privately.

What is shocking is how many on line news stories have headlines implying that there was a bomb plot against the funeral of Falwell. This is false. Actually it is dishonest. AOL News says: "Bomb Plot Thwarted at Falwell's Funeral"; Lynchburg News and Advocate says: "Arrest made in Falwell funeral threat. Australia The Age: "Falwell funeral bomb plot". True, the articles do mention the bomber was a student from Falwell's own school but many people never read past headlines.

Theocratic leader Jerry Falwell dies.

Jerry Falwell, one of the founders of the modern “Religious Right” has died. He was 73 in spite of apparently having been born in the Dark Ages. A fundamentalist Christian Falwell advocate big government in the realm of personal life. When the terrorists attacked on 9/11 Falwell claimed that “abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU” anyone who supports a secular state “helped this happen.” He then backtracked on the statement after he was severely criticized.

Falwell was one of the men who helped covert the Republican Party into a theocratic movement that has culminated in the George Bush White House.

I had met Falwell on a couple of occasions. The last time I saw him was some years ago when he was the featured speaker at a rally to pass the “Right to Decency” bill introduced by in the state legislature by fellow fundamentalist Republican Don Boys. The bill would have mandated imprisonment for homosexuality by making it a felony punishable by law. The legislation would give an automatic 2-to-21 year prison sentence for anyone convicted of being gay. Only days later I saw Falwell being interviewed at a press conference where he was asked about his groups position on the rights of gay people. Falwell claimed he has never advocated stripping gays of their rights this in spite of appearing, only days earlier, as the main speaker at a rally calling for the incarceration of homosexuals. Apparently honesty was not high on the list of “moral” issues.

Falwell claimed he had “a divine mandate from God to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will save America.”

Falwell began his career as a televangelist with a radio show The Old-Time Gospel Hour where he regularly featured extreme racists like Lester Maddox and George Wallace. Falwell later dropped these positions and instead focused on scapegoating homosexuals, a topic that obsessed him. In 1984 he had a television debate where he was charged with calling the pro-gay Metropolitan Community Churches ‘brute beasts”. Falwell publicly denied ever saying such a thing and promised his opponent $5000 if he could prove he did. The man had a video tape of Falwell saying this. Falwell then refused to pay up and was sued for breach of promise. The court ruled Falwell did indeed break his word and did owe $5000 to his opponent. Falwell appealed that ruling claiming the judge was biased and he lost that suit as well. But Falwell’s views on the matter are illustrated by his remark: “Thank God for these gay demonstrators. If I didn’t have them, I’d have to invent them. They give me all the publicity I need.”

Falwell supposedly died of heart problems.