The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 14 Apr 2000 -- 4:32 (#413)

[Paul Kneisel <tallpaul@xxxxxxxx>]

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           The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 14 April 2000
                       Vol. 4, Number 32 (#413)
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Americans United (press release), "Falwell's 'People of Faith 2000'
   Campaign Serves Partisan Agenda: IRS Should Launch Investigation of
   Shady Political Scheme"
American Atheists News, "Falwell Back In the Fray With New Political
   Effort"

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Falwell's 'People of Faith 2000' Campaign Serves Partisan Agenda: IRS
   Should Launch Investigation of Shady Political Scheme
Americans United (press release)

Religious Right leader Jerry Falwell's election-year project is a
partisan  political scheme that warrants an Internal Revenue Service
investigation,  according to a national church-state watchdog group.

Today, Falwell formally launched his "People of Faith 2000" project, an
initiative he claims will raise up to $25 million to register 10
million  religious conservatives between now and November. The effort
is a project of  Falwell's new tax-exempt organization, the Liberty
Alliance Institute, a  spin-off group of his Jerry Falwell Ministries,
that will distribute voter  registration materials to pastors and
individual church members.

Federal law prohibits tax-exempt institutions from conducting voter
registration drives in a partisan manner. Based on Falwell's own
remarks,  there can be little doubt that the "People of Faith 2000"
project is a scheme  to help elect presidential candidate George W.
Bush and other Republican  candidates, according to Americans United
for Separation of Church and State,  a watchdog group and longtime
critic of Falwell.

"Jerry Falwell is abusing tax-exempt religious ministries to push a
partisan  political agenda," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive
director of  Americans United. "This project is not a noble campaign
designed to simply  register more Americans to vote. It is a highly
partisan drive that Falwell  admits is intended to help put Gov. Bush
in the White House."

Falwell admitted his partisan motivation for the project in an
interview with  USA Today published on March 23. "It is my experience
that most people of  faith in this country vote pro-family, pro-life,
and that will mean George W.  Bush," Falwell said in describing the
importance of his project. "If I'm right,  the Republicans are going to
feel a very positive result from this from the  top to the bottom of
the ticket."

Additionally, Falwell told Beliefnet.com, an online religion news
website,  that he introduced his election year project quickly because
"another four  years of Clinton-Gore would devastate this country."

In fact, Falwell has made no effort to hide his enthusiasm for Bush. On
March  3, Falwell told supporters, "[W]e must have unity if we hope to
win in  November. The goal, as we all know, is to ensure that Al Gore
does not sit in  the Oval Office come January." On March 16, he told a
national television  audience he supports Bush "all the way." While
giving his opinion of the Log  Cabin Republicans (a gay GOP group),
Falwell told CNN on March 5, "I think  that they're living an immoral
lifestyle, but I'd much rather they vote for  George Bush than Al
Gore."

AU's Lynn said, "Falwell is free to support Republicans as an
individual, but  trying to use churches and tax-exempt ministries for
this purpose is deceitful  and probably illegal."

Despite the obviously partisan agenda of the project, Falwell has
acknowledged  that he has already raised $1 million for the effort from
business interests  that have been offered a tax deduction because the
money has been raised  through Falwell's tax-exempt organization.

"This stinks to high heaven," Lynn added. "As Falwell is well aware,
tax-deductible donations to a religious ministry are not supposed to be
diverted to partisan political projects. This warrants an immediate
investigation."

Lynn also noted that there is a precedent for the IRS severely
penalizing a  tax-exempt group that undertook a campaign similar to
Falwell's project.

In 1990 the IRS revoked the tax exemption of a non-profit group (whose
name is  kept confidential by the IRS) that sought to register
conservative voters in  advance of the 1984 election. The organization
had stated that its goal was to  register 1 million conservative voters
as part of an effort to re-elect Ronald  Reagan, and the IRS determined
this to be unlawful intervention in a political  campaign.

Falwell already has a history of sidestepping federal tax law
prohibitions  concerning churches and politics. The Internal Revenue
Service punished  Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour in 1993 when it
discovered that funds were  illegally funneled from Falwell's group to
a political action committee.  Falwell was forced to pay $50,000 and
the Old Time Gospel Hour's tax-exempt  status was pulled retroactively
for 1986-87.

"No religious leader should take legal advice from someone who
obviously has  trouble following the law himself," Lynn concluded.
"Falwell may be desperate  to regain political power and influence, but
using religious groups and  ignoring tax law is the wrong way to do
it."

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in
Washington,  D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000
members and allied  houses of worship in all 50 states.

- - - - -

Falwell Back In the Fray With New Political Effort
American Atheists News

Years after declaring that he was abandoning politics on behalf of
"saving souls," controversial televangelist Jerry Falwell has jumped
back into the arena and announced that he is launching an all-out
effort to register 10 million voters.

"I don't think religious conservatives have lost any of their power,"
Falwell told reporters at a press conference late last week.  "I think
they've lost their enthusiasm."  The controversial evangelist and head
of one of the early religious right political action groups, Moral
Majority, added that his "People of Faith 2000" initiative would work
closely with local pastors, and solicit nearly $19 million in
contributions to operate.

Critics quickly compared the Falwell plan to other efforts to use
churches as political fronts.  Ellen Johnson, President of American
Atheists, said that while local congregations may conduct "get out the
vote" drives or try to register voters, the activities must be
nonpartisan and not endorse a particular candidate.

"Everyone knows what's really going on here," Johnson warned. "Falwell
is using this as a way of recapturing his influence within the
Republican party, and to make sure that George W.  Bush tows the line
on issues like abortion and gay rights."

The Resurrection of Falwell

When Republicans lost their bid for the White House four years ago,
Falwell was one of a number of religious conservatives who believed
that Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals had "lost their way" in
the quest for political power.  Falwell announced that he was trading
in the political stump circuit to return to his first preoccupation of
preaching and "saving souls."  Similar views were put forth by
columnist Cal Thomas, who frequently has espoused the religious right
social agenda.  In books, speeches and opinion Columns, Thomas has
joined Falwell in warning of the pitfalls of the political process.

This left Falwell lingering on the political fringe, though, often
making him a media caricature.  He made numerous gaffes in public, such
as the time when he addressed a pastors' conference in Kingsport,
Tennessee and suggested that Jesus Christ would soon be returning to
Earth, and that "the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male."
He also became the target of commentators and late-night talk shows
hosts when a Falwell publication, The National Liberty Journal, claimed
that one of the "Telebubby" characters was gay, and that the popular
children's show carried "subtle depictions" extolling a homosexual
lifestyle.

Falwell was also swept up in the endless round of conspiracy theorizing
about President Clinton.  He co-financed and distributed a bizarre
documentary, "The Clinton Chronicles," and according to Salon Magazine
"covertly paid" $200,000 to people making damaging allegations about
the president's behavior in exchange for their dubious information.
Appearing desperate to remain in the public eye, Falwell announced in
late January of this year that he was suing the White House over an
alleged secret database of antiabortion and pro-life religious
activists.

For Falwell, the leap back into the electoral political arena, though,
has to do with growing skepticism in some quarters of the religious
right about GOP front-runner George W.  Bush.  The media christening of
the "People of Faith 2000" drive came the day after Bush attempted to
moderate his political profile by meeting with members of a gay GOP
organization known as the Log Cabin Republicans.  For Bush, who opposes
same-sex marriages and supports the military's "don't ask, don't tell"
policy, the meeting was a halfhearted effort to position himself as
more of a moderate, especially after the primary brouhaha over his
appearance at Bob Jones University.  Some religious right leaders,
however, including Falwell fear that Bush is waffling on the gay-rights
stand or sending the wrong message to the electorate, and that he is
"soft" on the abortion issue as well.  Bush raised eyebrows several
months ago when he declared that Americans "were not ready" for a
federal ban on abortion.

The meeting with Log Cabins Republicans and other gay supporters
immediately drew flak from Gary Bauer, head of the influential Family
Research Council.  "I don't think the meeting broadens the base when
you take that approach," Bauer told Associated Press.  "That's the
approach that we tried in the last two presidential elections.  We end
up shooting ourselves in the foot."

Falwell may also be falling closer into the political orbit of Pat
Buchanan, who seems assured now of a lock on the Reform Party ticket.
Taking aim at Bush for his meeting with gay Republicans, Buchanan
accused the GOP front-runner of "political pandering."

"The conservatives and the Christian folks who have given him (Bush)
his victory have apparently lost their usefulness to the governor,"
Buchanan told the New York Times.  "He's out searching for what he
considers greener pastures."

In Step With Falwell

The "People of Faith 2000" National Advisory Committee reflects the
involvement of several key extreme religious right leaders.  They
include:

* Paige Patterson, since 1998 president of the Southern Baptist
Convention, and former president of Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary.  Described as a "tireless advocate for evangelism," Patterson
and his wife crafted a new declaration adopted by the SBC in 1998 that
required wives to "submit graciously" to the authority of husbands.

Patterson has also worked closely with Falwell and others involved in
the "Clinton Chronicles" project.  In September, 1998, he shocked even
traditional Baptists by wading into the waters of secular politics, and
calling upon President Clinton to resign from the Oval Office "before
he is instrumental in corrupting all our young people..."

* Tim LaHaye is a veteran activist and was "present at the beginning"
in the late 1970s when the religious right was first finding its
political sea legs.  Along with Falwell, LaHaye was a founder of the
Moral Majority, the first organized effort to create a viable Christian
right presence within the republican Party.  He also served as GOP
point man with religious groups for the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1994,
and was instrumental in organizing important voter registration and
"get out the vote" campaigns.  This included another LaHaye-Falwell
group known as Christian Voice which printed and distributed millions
of glossy "Candidates Biblical Scorecard" to rate political hopefuls on
their conformity with fundamentalist doctrine.

Wife Beverly LaHaye founded and heads Concerned Woman for America.

* Rabbi Daniel Lapin is founder and president of Toward Tradition, a
"national alliance between conservative Jews and Christians."  He hosts
the nationally syndicated radio program, "The Rabbi's
Roundtable."

Lapin told the Atlanta Jewish Times in 1997 that the "chasm" in America
is not between "good" and "bad" people, but between "people who
understand America's biblical blueprint and those who don't.  Good
people who toss the biblical blueprint away become liberals.  Such
well-intentioned people become secularists and socialist.  And therein
lies the problem..."

Along with taking critical stand on gay rights, women in the military
and sex education in public schools, Lapin has also denounced recycling
as "The sacred sacrament of secularism."

"Why?  Because if we are animals then there is a shortage in the world.
God doesn't take anything from us and God doesn't create and therefore
there is a shortage ...  Do not feel guilty for using what God has
provided us.  Enjoy it!"

The rabbi also works closely with Pat Robertson, and appears at the
podium-pulpit during the Christian Coalition's annual "Road to Victory"
conferences.  Writer Rob Boston in his new book "Close Encounters With
the Religious Right" notes that "Robertson clings to Lapin, even though
the man is frequently incoherent, and his speeches are crude and
offensive.  Robertson needs him to claim Jewish support. Lapin needs
Robertson or else he would be completely obscure instead of just
irrelevant..."

* Laurence L.  White is pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in
Houston, Texas and "one of the leading voices in America today in the
pro-life, pro-family movement" according to the "People of Faith 2000"
web site.

* Janet Parshall works closely with Gary Bauer in the Washington, D.C.-
 based Family Research Council, where she serves as official media
spokesperson.  She also hosts a nationally syndicated talk show, and is
a guest columnist for USA TODAY and other publications.

In speaking to church audience and religious right action groups,
Parshall often claims that America in the midst of a "moral of
spiritual battle," and recounts the story about George Washington at
the Battle of Trenton.  Washington told the troops that should they run
out of bullets they should resort to bayonets.

"We must use our spiritual bayonets.  We must use the bayonets, for the
nation must be taken for the love of God," says Parshall.

Another favorite agenda item with Parshall and the FRC has been the new
"morning after" emergency contraception pill often given to victims of
rape.  Last summer, in an FRC press release Parshall opined that the
new pill "disrespects human life and does not warrant
approval of the FDA."

* Michael Johnston heads Kerusso Ministries, part of a network of
conservative religious groups which seek to "convert" gay men and women
to a straight lifestyle.  Johnson says that he gay and has AIDS, but
claims that "he hopes for eternal life ...  in his relationship with
Jesus Christ."  Kerusso Ministries works with groups like Alliance for
Traditional Marriage, Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America
and the Family Research Council in opposing local and state initiatives
on behalf of gay rights.  Johnston also headed up Hope '97, a yearlong
project "bringing the message of hope in Christ across America" with
rallies and seminars on "how to counter the homosexual agenda..."

* Armstrong Williams is a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles
Times groups, and CEO of an international public relations firm, Graham
Williams Group.  He describes himself as a "third-generation black
Republican," and worked at one time for Sen.  Strom Thurmond.

* Mathew Staver is the founder and president of Liberty Counsel, a
"religious civil rights" group which has been active in the legal
battle to legitimize student-led prayer.  He hosts a daily radio
program, and is also a member of the semisecret Council for National
Policy (CNP), a roundtable group linking conservative and religious
right activists with well-heeled financiers of political causes.

* Richard Viguerie is considered the godfather of many conservative and
religious right causes, going back to the early 1970s when he began a
direct mail operation on behalf of political candidates and groups.  He
is head of American Target Advertising in Washington, D.C. Viguerie is
considered the architect of the alliance between political
conservatives and evangelical-fundamentalist Christians; he helped form
groups like the American Life Lobby which began training conservative
Christians and integrating them into the ranks of the GOP.  He also has
had contacts within the beltway for nearly three decades, and when not
raising money for candidates like Jesse Helms, Viguerie has used his
direct mail organization to assist more shadowy groups like the World
Anti-Communist League -- described by sociologist and researcher Sarah
Diamond as "a multinational network of Nazi war criminals, Latin
American death squad leaders, North American racists and anti-Semites,
and fascist politicians from every continent..."

Viguerie has also maintained close ties with Rev.  Moon's Unification
Church cult, which even rescued him from bankruptcy in the 1980s.

Voters For ????

With other groups such as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition fresh
from a round of important victories on behalf of George W.  Bush,
Falwell's decision to launch his "People of Faith 2000" suggests a
growing divide amongst key religious right leaders.

Pat Robertson has backed his close friend Bush since the early days of
the Iowa caucus and beyond.  Christian Coalition launched a series of
ambitious campaigns in February which handed Bush an important primary
victory in South Carolina.  Robertson has also worked overtime to
assure fellow religious conservatives that the Texas governor is
"profoundly pro-life" and is the only viable candidate who can best Al
Gore in the November, 2000 general election.

In light of claims that he was "waffling" on the abortion question,
though, and has now met with gay Republicans, Bush is not trusted by
all on the religious right.  Falwell's decision to essentially
duplicate much of the work already being done by Robertson's group
suggests that "People of Faith 2000" is meant to send a clear signal to
GOP leadership that they must continue to espouse a tough line on gay
rights, abortion and other issues, or risk the loss of many evangelical
and fundamentalist voters.  By promising to deliver votes, Falwell also
enhances his own standing within the GOP as well.


"People of Faith 2000" is clearly directed at the Republican party.
David Woodward, political science professor at Clemson University in
South Carolina, said that Falwell's group is design to maintain the
religious right "influence in the political party," which he suggests
is "on the wane."

                           * * * * *

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research
and educational purposes only.


                               FASCISM:
   We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
          (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)

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