the rix mix

Fundamentalist protestants were an unimportant religious species when I was growing up. Oh, they were around Jersey, in some of the Baptist churches & Bible Chapels, but were concentrated down in South Jersey where a fiery radio preacher named Carl McIntire* railed against Godless schools, liberal churches, & secular humanism, just as they seemed to be concentrated nationally in the southern states. They despised rock & roll & feared the influence of television. The white ones were inclined to defend segregation, but they were politically weak as an organized segment of population. They tended to be nonpolitical. For many years, Jerry Falwell held the view that politics & religion didn't mix, although he was reacting to the religious tone of the Civil Rights Movement. I don't think it was Roe v Wade that moved Falwell off this position, but rather education issues; an increasing distrust of public schools along with change in attitude regarding public funding for private schools. Falwell was a bit late coming around on this matter; southern white evangelicals were stirred up when the Supreme Court ruled states could not provide textbooks to segregated church-sponsored schools. Which ironically put them on the same general side as Catholics but for different reasons, & is why Catholics & conservative Black churches have never trusted the older protestant right mullahs & their organizations despite sharing some beliefs & values.

Falwell's smartest move was realizing Liberty University was more useful than Moral Majority for promulgating his views & weaving them into the American fabric, so he concentrated on straightening out its finances & expanding it. His goal was for Liberty to "be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholicism," supposing American fundamentalism equals two millennia of Catholic intellectual & cultural contributions, & Liberty basketball teams could actually beat the Fighting Irish in the NCAAs. A browse through the Liberty University website reveals more of Falwell's slickly frightful vision for America than his off-the-cuff remarks about Telebubbies & the Jewish antichrist. Every year his school produces thoroughly indoctrinated health professionals, teachers, media specialists, social workers, counselors, lawyers; plus political organizers & operatives from the Jesse Helms School of Government. My own nephew is down there studying Sports Management. There's a really strict student Code of Conduct & no coed dorms, but the technology is up-to-date.

Jerry Falwell had the curious ability to disarm critics in person by playing the Virginia gentleman when it suited him & by having a fairly mild preaching style for an old time King James Gospel Baptist. But Virginians, who know the names of the families up on the hill, were not fooled. Nor was anyone who actually listened to what he was saying.

*McIntire was an important model for Falwell's generation.

Labels: religion