IF JERRY FALWELL is right about the way God works, then our newly declared war on terrorism isn't looking too good for the home team. After all, there is no nation on earth less hospitable to and less accepting of gays, feminists and civil libertarians than Afghanistan.
"The Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results." - Rev. Jerry Falwell, on the "700 Club," Sept. 13
Since the Taliban assumed control of that troubled country five years ago, they have crushed the wall separating church and state, and often quite literally on the backs of homosexuals. The punishment for sodomy in Afghanistan is to push over a stone wall on the offending sodomite, almost always resulting in his death. If the defendant somehow survives, God is considered to have commuted his sentence.
Certainly, Falwell is more likely to approve that sort of stone wall than the kind that launched a gay liberation in New York City back in 1969. That's not just being facetious. The stone walls of Afghanistan, like the burning pyres of Salem, Mass., before them, are intended to facilitate an active, angry God to decide who shall live and who shall die.
On that now-famous episode of "The 700 Club," featuring Falwell and host Pat Robertson, the two televangelists talked at length about just that philosophy, played out at the macro level. God has protected the U.S. from attack for more than two centuries, they agreed, because this country was founded as a Christian nation and has tried to adhere to Scripture.
Though both men have set track records for the speed with which they've run away from Falwell's finger-pointing diatribe, neither has renounced the theology behind it.
It was Robertson, remember, who warned the people of Orlando a few years ago that God would consider it a "poke in the eye" that they allowed Gay Pride flags to be hung from street poles. He specifically warned them to watch out for hurricanes, sent or allowed by the angered deity. (Robertson has never satisfactorily accounted for the fact that the next hurricane to hit the southeastern U.S. caused damage not in Orlando, but along the Virginia coast from which he launched his television empire.)
It's easy to dismiss Falwell as the Tinky Winky loon who no one takes seriously anymore, but consider the report in the week's Voice by Laura Douglas-Brown, on the number of like-minded Christians, including Southern Baptists, the country's largest Protestant denomination, and they're joined in those views as well by many Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Muslims.
The next time you find yourself wondering why religious conservatives worry so much about gay rights and tolerance of homosexuality, remember the Falwell sermon about the events of Sept. 11. To him and his fellow travelers, this isn't about what we do in the privacy of our bedrooms and in our lives. These people are driven by a genuine fear of the consequences for their families and their country if God is angered by the acceptance of homosexuality, as Falwell put it, as an "alternative lifestyle."
No more 'godless Communists'
Since Sept. 11, Americans have been learning more and more about this new enemy that struck so viciously at our homeland, targeting civilians and other non-military targets like airplanes and office buildings. Much of the initial attention has focused on terrorism, but President Bush broadened that focus in his speech to Congress last week. He characterized the conflict as one of values, casting our Western style of government against the brutal repression of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This new enemy isn't anything like the "godless Communists" of the Cold War. This time around, the bad guys are ultra God-fearing, albeit from another religious faith. And the Western values that the president says they hate and aim to destroy are not Christianity or religion - he was careful not to make this a religious war between Christians and Muslims. Instead, Bush cited democracy, religious and social tolerance and secular government as the aspects of American society that Osama bin Laden and Taliban keepers found so threatening.
It may have been subtext, but wasn't the president really criticizing these radical Muslims for acting on a theology remarkably close to that adhered to by Falwell and Robertson? Bin Laden and his followers fear God's reprisal for allowing Western culture to corrupt the Islamic world, and that reads much like the standard Falwell stump sermon, preached every Sunday at conservative Christian churches across this country.
In his speech before Congress, the president "condemned" the Taliban for limiting opportunities for women and severely restricting the liberties of the Afghan people. That sounds remarkably like those groups at the other end of Jerry Falwell's pointed finger: feminists and the ACLU.
It's not gays and our civil rights movement that can be perceived on the wrong side this time. It's the Taliban, and their Shiite enemies who govern in Iran, that are the type of repressive religious rulers that will now be viewed as "un-American" and the antithesis of our ideals.
If Falwell and Robertson did not enjoy squirming and spinning out of harm's way the last two weeks, consider the future that lies ahead of them. If we gays and feminists and card-carrying members of the ACLU do our job well, this country will unite behind the very ideals of America that hold so much promise for us and our families.
Gay and lesbian Americans should rally around the president alongside our fellow citizens, and fight for a future that is free from the shackles of outdated fears and legislated morality. That is the Taliban way, not the American way.