Falwell uses conference to endorse candidate

By Laura T. Rich

BR Graphics Editor

WINSTON-SALEM - Well-known conservative Jerry Falwell endorsed a political candidate at the North Carolina Pastors' Conference Nov. 10 before the Baptist State Convention's annual meeting.

Nathan Tabor, a Republican seeking the nomination for the fifth district seat in Congress arrived with Falwell and was endorsed by him during his sermon. "He's my breed and brand of Christian and if I lived here, I'd vote for him," Falwell said. "I told him if I could help him by either cursing him or blessing him, just let me come do it, whichever will help him most.

"He stands for the Judeo-Christian ethics, the biblical principles," Falwell said. "He is solid and he'll be there for a long time. He'll be like Jesse Helms. You'll be able to depend on him." Pastors won't have to lobby Tabor because he will vote from his faith, Falwell said. "As always, I've made some of you mad, some of you glad, but vote for him, support this guy," Falwell said.

While introducing Falwell who is pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. and chancellor of Liberty University, Pastors' Conference President Steve Griffith told participants about a letter he received. He said the letter stated that "North Carolina Baptists have to decide do they want their children to hear Randall Lolley preach, or Jerry Falwell." Griffith said his response to the letter was to book Falwell for the Pastors' Conference.

"I'm not sure I know who Randall Lolley is, so no offense taken," Falwell responded after taking the pulpit, laughing with the crowd.

In an earlier interview, Griffith told the Biblical Recorder that he recruited Falwell because he encourages pastors. Falwell "gets some bad press politically," Griffith said then. "I think he's just a pastor at heart."

Falwell used part of his time to urge pastors to be politically active.

Falwell told pastors to look at what Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle are doing to Bush's judicial appointees "all because they say that they happen to be pro-life and that makes them unfit to serve."

Democrats have worked to delay votes on the nominees, saying that they do not consider the nominees to represent the mainstream of judicial thought.

"We the church are responsible for that, because there are enough of us - 80 million of us," Falwell said.

Meeting with President Bush after the signing of the ban on what has been called partial-birth abortion, Falwell said he told the president that "our goal is to stop abortion entirely."

Falwell referred to federal court decisions against the Boy Scouts in California, Texas anti-sodomy laws and Alabama judge Roy Moore's monument to the Ten Commandments. "Who would have thought that could happen in our lifetime?" he asked.

"I told the president last week in the Oval Office, I said, 'Sir, there are 80 million of us evangelicals in this country and we've come to look upon you not only as our president, but as a man of God.' He said, 'Jerry, I'll do my best. You put great pressure on me, I'll do my best not to disappoint you,'" Falwell said.

Falwell told pastors that "we need men of God" in local, state and national government positions.

Falwell accused pastors of being afraid to mention opposition to homosexuality and abortion from the pulpit. "The press will leave you alone," he said, "if you put on the golden handcuffs and be quiet about homosexuality and abortion."

Falwell told pastors about recent elections in his area where he said several churches got together and endorsed "about a dozen" candidates and all were elected "by two to one margins."

Falwell said he wrote a letter to the 24,000 members of his church, timed to arrive the day before the elections, saying "God has ordained and ordered that we render to God that which is His and that means I look for you every Sunday in church. And to Caesar that which is Caesar's and that means I'll be looking for you at the polls tomorrow... Don't sin against God by failing to do it."

"It's legal to do that, by the way," Falwell said, "because you're a tax-paying citizen.

"If we can save America we can evangelize the world in our generation," he said.

In his closing prayer Falwell thanked God for the conservative shift in the Southern Baptist Convention, thanking God for "25 years of miracles and the renaissance that's occurred in this great movement, nothing like it in history."

"Virginia's been called the most liberal and North Carolina, the second," he prayed. "Oh God, help us become the most committed to the Bible, to Christ, to world evangelization. Help us God to shake off the bad reputations of the past and to become men and women of God, two states aflame for Christ."