Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the crackpot founder of the creationist college Liberty University, had some choice words when it came to Pope Francis’s criticism of Donald Trump.
“I really believe that anybody on the left or the right that tries to invoke the teachings of Jesus to say they should vote for this candidate or that candidate, I think they’re stretching Scripture.”
Falwell has made some very weird comparisons between the bloviating real estate mogul turned presidential candidate and Jesus Christ, which in and of itself means he is of questionable judgment at best.
He went on to say:
“Jesus never intended to give instructions to political leaders on how to run a country.”
This is surprising, considering that Falwell is following in his father’s bigoted, Jesus-encrusted footsteps as a staunch member of the Religious Right — a movement that is as political as it is religious. In fact, these Moral Majority types make literal careers of trying to force politicians to run the country according the Bible. Junior’s own dad, Falwell Sr., wrote the book on using religion to whip up the conservative base:
“If a man stands by this book, vote for him. If he doesn’t, don’t.”
Even more strange is the fact that Falwell Sr. used the Bible to promote segregation and other racist practices. Right Wing Watch‘s Brian Tashman nicely summarized the elder Falwell’s views on the matter of racism:
He preached against Brown v. Board of Education, which banned racial segregation in public schools, telling his church, “When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line. The true Negro does not want integration.”
Falwell kept his private Christian school segregated to help families avoid integration in public schools and opposed the Carter administration’s attempt to challenge the tax status of segregated schools. He also subscribed to the belief that black people were under “ Noah’s curse on Ham ” and argued that school “facilities should be separate.”
“If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made,” he said, warning that integration and interracial marriage will “destroy our race.”
Hopefully, Falwell Jr is indeed much more evolved than his insane father. That’s probably not likely, considering that he has taken up the torch where his father left off.
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