So the Reverend Jerry Falwell went on national (cable) TV last night and, according to Crooks and Liars, denied ever having met the now disgraced former leader of the largest evangelical movement in the world, Ted Haggard.
Reverend Jerry Falwell appeared on the Situation Room last night to talk about the midterm elections and the evangelical vote. When Paula Zahn asked him about the allegations surrounding Ted Haggard , Falwell said "I don't know him...I haven't met him" and played down his influence in the evangelical movement as negligible.
For video evidence of this, Crooks and Liars has the details.
So why should you care if Falwell and Haggard have never met? Oh, maybe because they have. Maybe because they met a lot... in the Oval Office, no less.
From
Church and State:
After the bill-signing, [Jerry] Falwell had a private meeting with Bush. (Others in attendance were Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham, former SBC president Adrian Rogers, Pat Robertson lawyer Jay Sekulow, rightwing Christian talk show host Janet Parshall, National Religious Broadcasters President Frank Wright, National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard and Southern Baptist lobbyist Richard Land.)
So they were in the same room at the same time, meeting the same jackass President.. but did they actually meet?
Let's ask someone who was present at that meeting... say, the Reverend Jerry Falwell.
The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the NAE and pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said at the meeting, "Since we are in a global community, no doubt about it, we must temper our speech and we must communicate primarily through actions."
[...]
I later learned that Rev. Haggard, who was only recently elected to his position, was not fully aware of the serious charges that would be made. Having talked with him since the meeting, I am convinced of his sincerity when he declares the event was not intended to be a personal rebuke of anyone.
In addition, both Falwell and Haggard are listed as PARTNERS in Battle Cry, an evangelical youth movement.
And more, this time from the Baltimore Sun:
Then the co-directors heard prominent preachers like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Ted Haggard, head of the Colorado-based National Association of Evangelicals, rallying their troops. Their voices appear in Jesus Camp, exhorting followers to mobilize and engage in the political process.
Anyone remember the Save America Now conference, just days before the last Presidential election? Haggard and Falwell do - they were featured speakers on the same stage.
Christian leaders and musicians who are scheduled to appear on the program include Jerry Falwell, Ted Haggard, Kenneth Copeland, Cindy Jacobs, Keith Butler, Charles Stanley, Tommy Tenney, Jack Van Impe, Judy Jacobs, Eddie and Alice Smith, and Sandi Patty.
And there's more! Haggard called a conference with the express view of asking Falwell and others to quit ragging on Islam, and Falwell was not only invited, he attended, then wrote about what Haggard had talked about.
The media wasn't alone in pointing out incidents of Islam-bashing. In early May, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) [Haggard's organization] convened a conference in Washington, D.C. titled "Consultation on Evangelical Christian-Muslim Relations" to go on record and publicly comment on the negative statements made about Islam and Mohammed by several evangelists. Although no one person was named, comments by Franklin Graham, the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Dr. Jerry Vines, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Charles Colson, Watergate felon and the founder of Prison Fellowship, were the reason the meeting was called.
"The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the NAE and pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said at the meeting, 'Since we are in a global community, no doubt about it, we must temper our speech and we must communicate primarily through actions,'" the Rev. Jerry Falwell pointed out in a recent edition of his online newsletter, Falwell Confidential.
Want more? Welcome to Welcome to Justice Sunday 3, starring Jerry Falwell and Ted Haggard.
From PBS:
JEFFREY KAYE: And in January, in a national telecast...
DR. JERRY FALWELL, Liberty University: "You have two senators. Urge them to vote for the confirmation of this judge."
JEFFREY KAYE: A tax-exempt Christian group, the Family Research Council, rallied support for the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
TED HAGGARD: "Your theological basis has implications in political action."
But Falwell and Haggard never met.
Sure, they shared the same stages, attended the same meetings, attended EACH OTHER'S meetings, wrote of what they talked about, shook the President's hand together, but the NEVER MET, according to the Most Reverend and Christian Jerry Falwell, convicted prostitute hirer and fraud.
From the Crooks and Liars transcript of last night's interview:
ZAHN: The Reverend Ted Haggard, who is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, a man who represents some 30 million evangelicals in this country, is stepping down after allegations he carried on a three-year affair with a male prostitute. You're reaction?
REV. JERRY FALWELL: Well, I don't know him. I haven't met him, and he's been rather critical of activists like Dr. James Dobson and myself. In pastors' meetings, he's said we shouldn't be aggressive as we have. I certainly sympathize with his family and the great congregation that he pastors there...
FALWELL: [...] He'll no be longer able to pastor his church or lead the evangelical movement. He doesn't really lead the movement. He's president of an association that's very loosely-knit, and I have never been a member of it. Most of people that I know have not, and no one has looked to them for leadership.
What will the flock say when they hear this outrageous lie? What would Jesus say?
And why the fuck didn't Paula Zahn do, as I did, the most basic fucking online Google search possible - "falwell+haggard" - in preparation of her interview, so that she'd have a follow-up question when Robertson lied to her face that he'd never met Haggard and didn't know him?
CNN: Continuing their fine tradition of avoiding confrontation in the search for news.