ETERNAL VIGILANCE

PHARISEE WATCH: Jay-walking with Jerry Falwell

PICKET AT THOMAS ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH, LYNCHBURG, VA
Charles E. Carlson

On Sunday, August 17, volunteers from Project Strait Gate held large signs and mingled quietly with the thousands who entered and left Jerry Falwell’s hexagonal Thomas Road Baptist Church. Literature was offered. The most frequent response, usually without looking, was “I DON’T NEED TO KNOW THAT.”

Strait Gate volunteers offered attendees pro-life Bible bookmarks and a variety of other items. Surprisingly, few wanted to understand the purpose of the Strait Gate picket, though a very small minority indicated they understood and were with us on this one.

Of these few we asked, "THEN WHY ARE YOU GOING IN THERE?”

Even from among the many attending students from Falwell’s Liberty University, only a few accepted literature and stayed behind to ask questions or offer arguments. Academic curiosity was at a minimum.

Late night TV host, Jay Leno, has made his “Jay-walking” a popular farce by asking non-thinking young persons dumb questions that draw
embarrassingly lame answers. Project Strait Gate displayed a large sign in front of the entrance steps offering a riddle that drew considerable comment from some of the hundreds of college students in attendance. They were asked: “Pardon me, but DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS SIGN?”

APOSTLE
NOT
APOSTASY
DUMMY

Our experience was reminiscent of Jay Leno's question and answer sessions, where he asks questions like, WHO IS THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT NAMED AFTER?

Here is the Falwellian version of Jay-walking at Thomas Road Baptist Church.

STRAIT GATE: Is yours a pro-life church? Jay-walker: OF COURSE WE ARE.

STRAIT GATE: How about the life of this little Iraqi girl, Teaba, whose picture you see on this bookmark. Is she entitled to live?

Jay-walker: SILENCE (most frequent answer)

Jay-walker: SADDAM HAD TO GO (second most frequent answer)

STRAIT GATE: As a professing Christian, how do you justify bombing Iraqi civilians?

Jay-walker: THE BIBLE REQUIRES US TO SUPPORT OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

STRAIT GATE: But there were no weapons (WMD), so how do you like being lied to by your leaders?

Jay-walker: WE HAD TO GET SADDAM BEFORE HE GOT US. Or:

Jay-walker: SADDAM HUSSEIN KILLS MORE OF HIS PEOPLE THAN WE DO. THEY JUST FOUND 10,000 BODIES HE HAD MURDERED.

STRAIT GATE: So do you think it is OK to kill people if we kill less than Saddam Hussein did? Where do you find that authority in the Bible?
Furthermore, your statistic is unverified. The US military encouraged an armed uprising right after the Gulf War that they did not support, and a lot of people got killed because they expected US support. The news covered it in detail in 1991, but the numbers are not known and were probably much less than your guess. The US Shock and Awe is already known to have killed over 6,100 Iraqis civilians in the bombing, and most were women and children. There were much larger numbers of Iraqi soldiers killed, who are only now being counted by the Red Cross.

Jay-walker: SADDAM HAS TO BE STOPPED; WOULD YOU HAVE DEFENDED HITLER, TOO?

STRAIT GATE: Never mind Hitler, he died before you were born. What about Ariel Sharon? Your church backs his every move and he kills people every day. Do you think Americans should have to pay for the policies of Israel, right or wrong?

Jay-walker: ISRAELIS HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST THOSE SUICIDE BOMBERS WHO KILL CHILDREN ON SCHOOL BUSES AND BLOW UP
THEIR HOUSES. Or,

Jay-walker: ISRAEL IS THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD, IT IS THEIR LAND

STRAIT GATE: But your facts are off. It’s a matter of record that Palestinians have killed about 60 children and destroyed one Israeli house in all of the 13 years of the uprising; but Israeli solders have shot to death over a thousand Palestinian children in the last two years alone. That’s a ratio of 17 children to 1, so how can you call that self-defense? Don’t you feel blood on your hands for those thousands of Palestinians children?

STRAIT GATE: As for who owns the land, do you know anyone in Israel who can trace his ancestor back 200 generations to Abraham?

Jay-walker: YOU’RE HERE TO MAKE MR. FALWELL LOOK BAD. THAT IS NOT CHRISTIAN. Or,

Jay-walker: WHY ARE YOU AFTER MR. FALWELL?

STRAIT GATE: Because he says he is pro-life, but he always supports wars, especially if they are wars that Israel wants. Jerry Falwell is not a peacemaker, as Jesus called him to be. That makes this an apostate church.

Jay-walker: BUT THAT’S NOT FAIR, THIS IS HIS CHURCH, YOU ARE INVADING HIS PRIVATE DOMAIN.

STRAIT GATE: Innocent little children are dying in the own homes because Mr. Falwell blesses Israel’s war on Palestine, so he is part of that invasion.

Jay-walker: MY DAD IS A PASTOR AND YOU BETTER NOT COME TO HIS OUR CHURCH.

STRAIT GATE: Where is his church?

Jay-walker: I AM NOT GOING TO TELL YOU.

Church official: WHY DON’T YOU COME IN THE CHURCH AND LET REV. FALWELL MINISTER TO YOU? YOU NEED IT.

STRAIT GATE: Because this is an apostate church, and we would be wrong for us to do so, just like it is wrong for you to be in there. But we will come in if you will give us five minutes at the pulpit to teach.

Church official: YOU KNOW WE CAN’T DO THAT.

NOT EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE POP QUIZ WAS A HOPELESS JAY-WALKER.
The best exchange came from a Virginia University student named Bryan, who informed the writer that Strait Gate was wrong when we said Jerry Falwell supports every war that comes along. Bryan assured us Falwell vigorously, opposed the 1998 bombing of Serbia. WE STAND CORRECTED. WE WERE WRONG.

We should not be surprised to learn Jerry Falwell talks out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he says Romans 13 requires Christians to support the Commander-in-Chief; and on the other hand, he opposed Chief Bill Clinton in his war in Serbia. For once we would agree with him, but this only makes Falwell a worse hypocrite.

Falwell also shows his penchant for hypocrisy by violating the ninth commandment to not bear false witness, when he first claims we must honor authority as appointed by God, but then encourages Judge Roy Moore to defy the dictate of his magistrate superiors, in the matter of the 10 Commandments monument in Alabama, where he spoke out on August 16.

Falwell said: "Civil disobedience is the right of all men when we believe breaking man's law is needed to preserve God's law."

Not that we disagree with this statement, for as in Kosovo, Falwell is right. But he talks out of both sides of his mouth, depending on whether he is justifying war or no war. This makes Falwell a bearer of false witness at the very least.

Project Strait Gate requested the presence of Lynchburg police, and two squad cars were present. The demonstration was anticipated by a large part of the crowd, and it had no doubt been a hot topic of discussion in the classrooms at Liberty University, part of the Falwell empire. Over 650 e-mail announcements of the event, a “Virtual Picket” were sent in advance to a sampling of Liberty University student and faculty, as well as staff and employees of the church.

Among the volunteers present were Willis Carto, publisher of The Barnes Review and American Free Press, and Christian author, Dave Ritzenthaler. Parties interested in challenging the conference attendees or helping with Project Strait Gate's first Electronic Virtual Pickets may e-mail cecarl@whtt.org or the website www.whtt.org, or phone 480-947-3329.

Project Strait Gate will return to Lynchburg, Virginia on October 5- 8, 2003, to picket Jerry Falwell's "Superconference USA" at which Falwell’s staff predicts 10,000 pastors and Christian leader will be in attendance. Speakers will include Jerry Vines, Former President of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Baptist, Vines practices Christian racism. He once embarrassed the SBC by publicly calling the Muslim Prophet Mohammed "A DEMON- POSSESSED PEDOPHILE." Neither Vines nor the SBC ever divulged the source of this amazing discovery 1400 years after Mohammed's death.


SOME LIFE AND DEATH FACTS THAT LIBERTY COLLEGE DOES NOT TEACH:

The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and $205,479 to Palestinian NGO's.

820 Israelis and 2,427 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000.

5,640 Israelis and 23,255 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000.

The Israeli unemployment rate is 10.4%. The Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 37-67%.

One Israeli school has been fired upon by Palestinians, and 185 Palestinian schools have been fired upon by Israelis since September 29, 2000.

One Israeli home has been destroyed by Palestinians, and 16,638 Palestinian homes have been destroyed (2,202 completely and 14,436 partially) since September 29, 2000.

44 new Jewish-only settlements were built by the Israeli government on confiscated Palestinian land between 9/29/2000 and 6/30/2002. There have been 0 cases of Palestinians confiscating Israeli land and building settlements. Source: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

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