More weird stuff about Jerry Falwell, Jr’s pro-Trump advocacy

Last updated on: August 31, 2016 at 12:03 am by Jacob Lupfer

More weird stuff about Jerry Falwell, Jr’s pro-Trump advocacy 2016-08-31T00:03:59-04:00 Jacob Lupfer

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m working on a theory that Falwell likes Trump so much because Falwell is essentially a businessman, not a religious leader. And, to be fair to Mr. Falwell, I’m not sure he holds himself out to be a religious leader very much. Maybe that mantle is thrust upon him by some leaderless constituency or by the media. Remember, brother Jonathan is the ordained minister who inherited the megachurch portion of Jerry Falwell, Sr’s empire. Jerry got the college. His background is in management and law, not theology or politics.

When I read Falwell’s op-ed last weekend in The Washington Post, it made a lot more sense imagining its author to be a B-list partisan hack rather than a thoughtful Christian leader reflecting on politics.

Here’s the nastiest and most ignorant part. But you should read the whole thing.

We have lived through nearly eight years of weak leadership from a president who did not sign the charter to create the Islamic State but whose policies had the intended or unintended effect (we will be debating that for decades) of breathing life into the lungs of the terrorist group. President Obama and Hillary Clinton most definitely signaled to Islamic State leaders that they had no intention of seriously challenging them, or even of calling radical Islamic terrorism by its name. Instead, Obama and Clinton pulled our troops out of Iraq, drew and then quickly erased a red line in Syria and tried to convince us that unverifiable pinpoint drone strikes (after leaflet warnings) would win the war against the Islamic State.

All of this was enabled by a feckless establishment Republican Congress.

I guess you could debate whether or not President Obama “breathed life into the lungs of a terrorist group.” But it seems Mr. Falwell wants to say that Obama may have done so on purpose! That’s one of the most libelous things I’ve seen this election cycle — and that’s saying something.

Falwell goes on to suggest that Mrs. Clinton did a bunch of things that the State Department does not have the legal ability to do.

Adding to the ignorance, Falwell falsely implies that the Republicans in Congress could have prevented Mr. Obama from exercising the presidency’s rather expansive executive powers in foreign policy.

Falwell also impugns Clinton for some of the things that the U.S. Government did while she was a Senator — fiscal policy problems that a single senator is powerless to stop and that, frankly, the Republicans did more to create than the Democrats did.

But again, the striking thing about Falwell’s op-ed is that it reads like it came from a junior political operative, not a reflective faith leader.

gun-728958_640

Falwell’s constitutional/legal priority

Would a pro-life evangelical mention Supreme Court nominations without talking about the imperative to criminalize abortion? I don’t think so. But look what Falwell says:

Despite our differences, Americans from all walks of life must unite behind Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence or suffer dire consequences. If Clinton appoints the next few Supreme Court justices, not only will the Second Amendment right to bear arms be effectively lost, but also activist judges will rewrite our Constitution in ways that would make it unrecognizable to our founders.

Social conservatives want to fight against abortion and “the radical homosexual lobby” and such. But for Falwell, the only legal/constitutional issue worth mentioning is gun rights.

The piece was pretty clearly written by a low-level staffer or intern. But Jerry Falwell, Jr. should’ve known better than to put his name to it.

And while Falwell has tried to make it clear that he endorses Trump as a private citizen and not on behalf of Liberty University, we should all be clear on one thing: Jerry Falwell is not a faith leader.

Mr. Falwell is a lawyer, a chief executive, and a Southern Baptist layman. When he looks at a nativist, anti-intellectual, race-baiting mammon-hoarder who pretends to care about Christianity, Jerry Jr. inexplicably likes what he sees.

money-shark-1612258_1920

Image credit: Pixabay

Previous Post

August 24, 2016

Did Christian intellectuals withdraw or were they forced out?

Next Post

August 31, 2016 Jerry Falwell, Jr. needs an intervention

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #Faith2016 Christian right Christianity Debates Democratic Convention Donald Trump GOP nominating contest Inauguration Media News roundup Personal Polls Religious freedom Republican Convention Uncategorized

Select a Month February 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 August 2017 July 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz