Falwell: It’s Time for Christians to Get Out the Vote

FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL
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From: Jerry Falwell
Date: October 27, 2006

It’s Time for Christians to Get Out the Vote

Daily media stories are full of doom and gloom for Republicans. If we are to believe these election accounts, the GOP is in an out-of-control downward spiral that cannot be fixed before the November 7 elections.

I don’t claim to be an election authority, but I’ve been around a long time and I have learned that the polls and the pundits aren’t always right And I think the pollsters may be off target in terms of this election.

My primary reason for believing this is based in my relationship with the so-called “religious right,” or the old Moral Majority.

I don’t believe the polls accurately depict the preparedness of the conservative Christian community to vote. Sure, I think the recent Foley scandal and other government indignities have discouraged some, but when you get down to brass tacks, these controversies don’t alter our core values.

Christians continue to want to elect those candidates that best reflect their biblical values and support the issues that have defined our movement since we swept Ronald Reagan into the Oval Office in 1980. Our values have not changed.

As Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, says, “The right to life and traditional marriage are not wedge issues, they are winning issues. Values issues are not distractions from the business of governing. They are central to the survival of our republic.

If Christians were a little complacent about the approaching elections, I believe this week’s New Jersey Supreme Court ruling, that the state must tender rights of marriage to homosexual couples, has rejuvenated our constituency.

This ruling is a striking reminder that many of our nation’s jurists have jumped on the politically-correct bandwagon and are attempting to force their will on the people. We simply must elect lawmakers—whether Democrat or Republican—who seek to protect traditional marriage and the unborn.

Our laws must not be determined based on social whims

I read with interest this week that Sen. Hillary Clinton said that her outlook on homosexual marriage “has certainly evolved.”

This gives Mrs. Clinton, who has previously said that she does not support same-sex marriage, a political out. She can simply “evolve” into what she needs to be in order to recruit the voters she thinks she needs.

“Oops! I evolved.”

When one’s core values are swinging in the wind, they’re certainly not worth a whole lot.
I don’t believe the conservative Christian community—whose core values are deeply rooted in the Bible—are ready to allow fickle politicians to determine that traditional marriage is suddenly obsolete.

So that brings us to the November elections and the key question of the day: Will the “values voters” show up at the polls?

It is imperative that we do.

I am urging Christians across this nation to study the candidates and the issues and then go to the polls to vote for those men and women that best reflect our values.

This election is far from over, even though many pundits want us to believe it is.
Let’s get out and vote. In the seven states where there are marriage protection amendments on the ballots—Arizona, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin—I urge Christians to make their voices heard.

Pastors, this Sunday, encourage all of your parishioners to be at the polls on November 7 to accomplish their Christian responsibility. Let’s prove that the “religious right” continues to be a very significant voting bloc.

You're just a Godless killing machine, aren'tcha? :evilgrin: :hi:

Just the hypocrites! :hi:

But Falwell has made things like abortion and gay marriage the only values that are important to a Christian.

War mongering, assistance depriving, criminals do not meet Christian values.

that what Falwell really means.

Republican or you are all going to hell!

In Iran.

on election day, and working on GOTV, and going to the Democratic victory party! I might have forgot except for this reminder.

one needs to follow the teachings of Christ. The people Falwell is talking to do not hold to true Christian principles and should not be allowed to call themselves Christians. I wish Christians would speak up louder to point out that these people are frauds.

These people should be referred to as "wacko's" per Tome Delay or "nuts" per Karl Rove.

While catching up on the political news this morning, I found myself getting more and more disgusted with Christians in this election and fired off the following “essay”. As a first-time poster I have no credibility for you to read my thoughts, but I ask that you do. It is just my opinion, but I needed to express it. Thanks for reading.

I find myself in a difficult position leading up to the mid-term elections. First, as a resident of North Carolina, I am not in a state that has congressional election. Therefore, I am at the mercy of the rest of the country to protect my family and me from the policies of the Bush administration.

Second, and most disconcerting, I am a political liberal who happens to be a theologically conservative evangelical Christian. Most of you are shocked. “What! Evangelicals can be progressive?” Of course they can, and we (at least I) want a voice within the progressive community.

I want to offer my apologies to the progressive community for the hijacking of Christianity by the right. In an attempt to get their voice heard on social issues they have become bedfellows with the group who would listen most readily. As a result they have sacrificed the heart of Christianity on the alter of power and have distorted the teachings of Jesus from a message of grace, a Kingdom of peace, and a people of love into a message of control, power, and dominance. These characteristics are exactly the opposite of what Christianity should teach. For those of you who have heard a message other than that which Christianity should be proclaiming, I am sorry.

I would also like to encourage the progressive community to keep up the fight. You are promoting the characteristics of a society which, whether you like it or not, is very Christian. In no way would Jesus oppose fair-trade, social equality, environmental care, or the pursuit of peace. These characteristics of society are Christian characteristics, and there are some of us in the evangelical community who have a deep heart desire to see those characteristics dominate our culture and our community.

Now many of you may ask, what about the “hot-button” issues – homosexuality, abortion, terrorism? These are good questions with no easy answers.

The issue of terrorism is effective to lay a framework by which we can build a common cause and ideal for the future. I believe it is important that we highlight a very dangerous shift within the policies of the Bush administration in regard to terrorism. The Bush administration has transitioned the pursuit of terrorists and the elimination of terrorism from the realm of law into the realm of war. That is to say, terrorists are driven by ideas to commit crimes (no matter how heinous those crimes might be). However, Bush has treated has taken those crimes as acts of war, and has, as a result, gone to war with an idea. In this regard we must all be concerned, for once the precedent of war against ideas has been established we all risk the destruction of our rights. What happens when the distorted Christian leadership of this country deems homosexual, or atheist, or progressive ideas as terrorist speech? They are then free to go to war against those ideas. When any member of this society looses the right to speak freely, I loose the right to speak freely. My freedom hinges on your freedom. Therefore, I am not willing to see any member of this society, no matter how much I may disagree with his/her position, loose their freedom to speak.

It is within the context of this freedom to speak that I believe theologically conservative evangelicals and politically liberal progressives can find common ground. As one who finds himself with a foot in both worlds I humbly ask the progressive community to give us a voice. Not all Christians are against you. Sure, if you were to push me on the issue, I would have to admit that I believe homosexuality is wrong. Yet the beauty of American freedom allows the homosexual community the opportunity voice their opinion and the evangelical community to voice their opinion and then, agreeing to disagree, respect each other’s freedom, tolerate each other’s ideas, and fight together for the good of our great society. It is not my job to convert the homosexual. If he or she wants to know more about Christianity, it is my job to present the ideas of Christianity with grace and love. It is the homosexual’s right to listen and choose. It is that simple. Yet both sides have galvanized to such an extreme that we are loosing our ability to do the work necessary to help those who really need it – the single mom stuck in an unfair pay structure at Wal-Mart, the Appalachian family with no running water, the homeless man without access to mental care, the lower-middle class family without access to health care. It is wrong for us to argue about what we may or may not believe is acceptable in the privacy of our bedrooms between consenting adults when there are thousands of people in America hungry, sick, and poor. Let’s get over our sex and get on to those things that really matter.

Social justice is Christian. Social justice is progressive.
Universal healthcare is Christian. Universal healthcare is progressive.
Environmental protection is Christian. Environmental protection is progressive.

Progressives, please give Christians within your community a voice. Together we can see America become the great society we both know it can be.

that being a Christian requires you to support the political right?

I'm not a great Bible expert, but I don't remember a verse that says that God is a Republican.

In the UK, the Church of England have frequently spoken out against right-wing policies.

And my Christian values utterly reject war as a tool of foreign policy, senseless slaughter in furtherance of a political agenda, neglect of the environment to line the pockets of a few, the squandering of our national treasury on engines of violence and corrupt business people who serve only wealth at the expense of the poor, and the sanctimonious hypocrisy of those with itching ears who seek only the approval of their supporters.

Looks like a total shutout for the GOP. Again.

I was wondering how long it would take him, and "boom" he found a way to incorporate her into his essay. Here's to you, Fuckwell!:nuke: