First of all, what you have to understand is that, as a Christian, I am a Fundamentalist Baptist, of the David Cloud stripe. (He is not my Pastor or guru or anything like that, I simply agree with about 99% of his writings.) For all intents and purposes, this here, can be considered my Statement of Faith.
I have for many years held the belief, that Jerry Falwell was a not a true-blue Fundamentalist Baptist, but rather a “go along to get along” soft evangelical that would sell a Fundamentalist up the river for the cause of political and religious unity. This posting in the Christian Post about a book that has come out, confirms what I suspected for years:
WASHINGTON – Michael Sean Winters, a biographer of the late Jerry Falwell, said that the controversial preacher and Christian Right leader helped remove the stigma conservative Protestants had working alongside Roman Catholics and Mormons for common political goals.
Winters, author of God’s Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right, was a guest speaker at an event Monday that carried the same title as his book. The event was sponsored by the Center for American Progress and the People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF).
“He dispensed with this idea that you could not be yoked with nonbelievers or non-fundamentalists,” said Winters to The Christian Post.
“[Falwell] was very proud of the fact that even in the early years of the Moral Majority it was 30 percent conservative Roman Catholic.
[……]
At the discussion-based presentation, Winters talked to those gathered about how one of the amiable qualities of Falwell was his “capacity for friendship.”
“He has this incredible capacity for friendship, which extended to people who were not like-minded,” said Winters.
Winters noted as examples that Falwell’s friendships included people like Ted Kennedy, a liberal political figure, and Larry Flynt, a pornographer who fought Falwell in the courts over issues of defamation and libel.
“Every time he was in Los Angeles, Jerry Falwell would always visit Larry Flynt,” said Winters.
“When Falwell died, Flynt wrote this very moving tribute in the L.A. Times how ‘we agreed on nothing but he was my friend.'”
This above proves what I pretty much knew about Jerry Falwell. To be fair; I should point out that this was not always the case with Falwell. At one time, Falwell did preach the hardcore Fundamentalist stance on Biblical separation at one time. However, as Falwell became involved with politics, he toned down his message of separation. This was because Falwell knew that his hardcore stance on Biblical separation would not be popular with the Republican Party establishment. I also feel the need to point out that Jerry Falwell was a dishonest snake; I say this because of his baldfaced lies that he told to then-Pastor Jim Bakker, when he had his troubles with his Ministry. Falwell simply wanted the television network and nothing else. When Falwell saw that he could not get said network, he pushed that ministry into bankruptcy and washed his hands of it.
