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SOUTHERN VOICE OCTOBER7/1993
Falwell bashes gays and lesbians to revive past glory
by KC W1LDM00N
During the 1980s, as the money poured in,
presidents sought his counsel and politicians
courted his support. But in this new decade,
Jerry Falwell finds himself battered financially
and usurped politically. To sustain his minis
try and celebrity, he has turned to bashing gays
and lesbians.
Hardly a direct-mail piece goes out of his
Lynchburg, Va. headquarters that does not de
cry the moral degeneration caused in this coun
try by homosexuals. Both his “Old Time Gos
pel Hour” television show and “Perspectives”
radio program rail against the awful descent of
America into hellish hedonism. He has asked
his followers (and they do refer to themselves
as such) to join him in a declaration of war.
“The liberal politicians, radical feminists
and homosexual groups have a design for
takeover...of our country.. .and your family,”
he wrote in a June fundraising letter mailed
out to thousands of sympathizers in his group,
the Liberty Alliance.
In return for “a gift of $55, $35 or even
$25,” Falwell promised those who joined his
spiritual war a videotape with “two messages
every American should hear—‘America De
clares War on God’ and ‘An Expose of the
Gay and lesbian March on Washington.’”
But what Falwell and his “behind-the-
scenes camera crew” saw in the nation’s capi
tal last April 25—what they are sending out to
cities and hamlets all across America—bears
precious little resemblance to what people at
the march saw, or even the view enjoyed by
people who stayed home and watched the pro
ceedings on the network news or C-SPAN.
His version is a carefully constructed se
ries of clips of the most outrageous scenes
Falwell’s camera crew could find.
“If you watched the national media cover
age on the gay march, you missed the real,
sordid story,” Falwell wrote in a May 1
fundraising letter. “The media attempted to
sugarcoat the perversion—but our camera
crews captured events not shown on network
TV.” And with a warning that the mailer should
be kept out of the hands of small children,
Falwell described the horrors in Washington
on that spring day:
Clinton advisor David Mixner saying that
gay men and lesbians need “no longer live in
shame.” Metropolitan Community Church
founder Troy Perry announcing that “God is
on our side.” Men walking arm-in-arm.
Photos enclosed with the call for money
showed two men hugging, a man in a “Big
Fag” T-shirt and the front banner of a P-FLAG
group proclaiming “the real meaning of family
values.”
In short, what set Falwell off was nothing
that wouldn’t have appeared in lesbian and
gay press coverage of the march. But Falwell
had a different take. “These radical homosexu
als were an army of perverted men and women
whose agenda is to completely destroy the
traditional moral values of America,” he wrote.
“They now feel free to spread their filth across
America.”
Jerry Falwell’s paranoid perception is of a
massive, evil homosexual constituency out to
undermine the security of the nation. And the
only way to combat it is to return to those
elusive traditional family values—one man for
one woman, no homosexuality.
But such a simplistic view of “family val
ues” does not always take into consideration
the real behavior of those families. And Jerry
Falwell’s family history is a case in point.
The Falwell clan has been a part of
Lynchburg history since its 1757, when John
Lynch established a ferry on the James River.
And yes, this is the spot that brought the word
“lynching” into the American language. Dur
ing the American Revolution, John Lynch and
his brother, Charles, had a habit of hanging
Tories by their thumbs until they called out
“Liberty forever.” Through the years, the prac
tice became much more violent—and fatal.
Falwell’s family has always been a rough
cross between Southern aristocracy and wild
rednecks. Hezekiah Carey Falwell, Jerry’s
great-grandfather, was a slaveowner with nearly
1,000 acres of farmland. A wheelwright by
trade, Hezekiah used his land to raise crops to
feed the Confederate army during the Civil
War. He also provided land for a Confederate
fort for the city’s defense.
Jerry Falwell’s grandfather, Charles Wil
liam Falwell, was, by all accounts, a kind and
generous man who ran a large dairy and dirt
farm on the Falwell property. But he was an
atheist who “turned his back on God forever”
when his wife died in 1914. “Grandpa Charles
refused to enter a church and relentlessly ridi
culed anyone who did,” Jerry Falwell wrote in
his 1987 autobiography, “Strength for the Jour
ney.”
Falwell saw this as a victory for the “En
emy,” his special name for Satan. In “Strength
for the Journey,” Falwell details as much of
his family history as is known, carefully attrib
uting any action that does not coincide with
his Christian beliefs to the “Enemy.” No ac
count was more dramatic than the death of his
uncle, Garland, at the hands of Carey Falwell,
Jerry’s father.
Carey’s father was a hard-working man
who started a bus service between several cit
ies in Virginia and North Carolina. He was
also a bootlegger during Prohibition in the
1920s and staged illegal cockfights and dog
fights for the Lynchburg citizenry. Because of
Carey Falwell’s many business enterprises—a
hotel, restaurants, gas stations, real estate,
stocks, bonds, vending machines, the bus line—
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On November 2, 1993 we will cast our ballots for the only City Council candidate in the 6th District who has earned our trust with her steadfast support of our
neighborhoods and the individuals living there.
Mary Davis’ efforts have blocked the interstate highway project which would have destroyed our intown neighborhoods; in the Atlanta City Council she has worked to
preserve our neighborhoods and Piedmont Park as well; and she has long supported legislation protecting the human rights of all citizens. Mary Davis has proven to us that
she alone possesses those qualifications necessary to represent the 6th District.
Her history of community involvement, her experience in city government and her proven record of accomplishments make it clear there is only one choice.
PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF MARY DAVIS
We enthusiastically endorse the re-election of
Mary Davis
City Council District 6
Joseph W. Blount
Anne Fauver
Loretta Redd, Ph.D.
Thomas E. Latimer
Dick Rhodes
Judy Colbs
Dick Dailey
Paul Frick
Susan Walker and Charles Longley, Jr.-
Michael Aycock and Dr. Barry Baker
Dr. Melanie Thompson
Dr. and Mrs. Stuart C. Segerman
Leon Allen and Winston Johnson
Barbara Nama and Zee Rosenzweig
Natalie and Michael Dellinger
Dr. Lorrie Hallman
Rep. Jim Martin
Dr. Ann McKain
Ruthie Zaleon
Diana Refsland
Lynn Pasqualetti
Sunny Williams
Maya Hahn
Ann Taylor Boutwell