FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Visionary Christian leaders in America's pulpits, courthouses and statehouses can transform the nation and change the world, televangelist Jerry Falwell told students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Falwell, an Independent Fundamentalist-turned-Southern Baptist, spoke Aug. 24 for the first time at the largest Southern Baptist seminary, preaching a sermon on visionary leadership and sharing his own vision for turning the United States toward God.
He also confirmed his support for President George W. Bush. At the beginning of his address, Falwell quipped, “The press is here today, expecting me to get into politics, which I'm not going to do — except to tell you to vote for the Bush of your choice.”
Seminary President Paige Patterson introduced Falwell as a “prophet and a man of true courage.” Falwell reciprocated by calling Patterson “the only clergyman I know slightly to the right of me.”
“The vision is world evangelization,” he told the students. “That's the ultimate goal of the gospel.” Falwell described how God transformed his life and gave him a vision of starting a church in a city where his family had been known for generations for their ungodliness.
“There's nothing wrong with assuming a pulpit” in an established church, he said. “But there's something nobler about starting one,” he continued, noting pastors don't have to teach members of new churches how to unlearn traditions.
Even so, he added: “May God lead many of you to some of these moderate churches that deserve fundamentalist pastors like you. … Sometimes it takes a full year before that church is who you are.”
Falwell, founding pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and chancellor of Liberty University, both in Lynchburg, Va., told the seminary students God gave him a vision not only for planting a church, but also for starting a school where students could sit in classrooms from kindergarten through graduate school and never be exposed to ungodly teaching.
The latest addition to that growing dream is a law school to “train men and women in the legal profession to be legislators and judges …who can help bring this nation back to God and back to the faith of our fathers,” he said.
“America is about to lose her vision. We're a nation under God, built on the Judeo-Christian ethic. Runaway judges have almost wrecked the country these last 40 years, expelling God from schoolhouses and now courthouses,” he said.
These activist judges have attempted to “create a secular nation out of a Christian nation, which our founders clearly intended,” he continued. “Your job and mine is to refuse to let them do it.”
Liberty University's law school opened this week with 60 students, but Falwell predicted the school will grow to 450 students within three years.
Falwell said he has “no intention” of allowing Americans United for Separation of Church and State “to steal the country from people of faith.”
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, recently asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Falwell for posting a website column endorsing Bush for president.
After the chapel service, he reiterated his position to reporters, saying: “I think John Kerry is a formidable opponent. I also think he is the most liberal person ever to run for the office of the president, and I hope he loses.”
Even though he believes pastors have the legal right to endorse candidates without endangering their churches' tax-exempt status, Falwell emphasized the key is not pastoral endorsement but get-out-the-vote efforts in churches.
“All the surveys indicate that people of faith who are regular church attenders will vote pro-life and in support of traditional families. In this election, that means George Bush,” he said to the media.
Before Falwell's chapel sermon, Patterson told the crowd the seminary would launch a concerted voter registration effort among students.
“This year's election — whether it's the presidency, the House, the Senate or whatever — is really a referendum on what constitutes marriage,” Patterson said.
Before Falwell came to the pulpit, Patterson invited Pat Carlson, chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, to make an appeal for seminary students to become registered voters.
“Do you realize how different this country would be if every Christian voted? Our elected officials and our government policies would reflect biblical principles,” she said, noting in particular Christian voters could elect officials who oppose abortion and support “traditional family values.”
She particularly urged ministerial students to challenge their church members to become politically involved.
“I truly believe we will not see any change in the behavior of Christians as far as participating in politics until the pastors of this country have the courage of their convictions to stand in the pulpit and hold ungodly elected officials accountable,” she said.
Phil Strickland, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, expressed concern that Southwestern Seminary could be placing its own tax-exempt status at risk-not by urging students to vote or discussing moral issues, but by failing to present a balanced view in a contested political race.
“It will be interesting to see if Southwestern provides that required balance,” he said.
Failing to offer students that broader perspective offers a poor model for ministers who want to encourage responsible Christian citizenship in the churches they serve, Strickland insisted.
“Local churches should not become platforms for partisan politics,” he said.
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