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Music Cues: Jerry Falwell
November 13, 1999
It's a challenge for public figures to change their minds. Their best quotes can suddenly be used against them. Their former opponents distrust
their sincerity; their former supporters doubt their sanity. The press
points out their hypocrisy. Public life encourages famous people to press
and promote their views -- not reflect on them; or even, perhaps, to change.
The Reverend Jerry Falwell seems to be changing some of his beliefs about
homosexuality. Three weeks ago, the Reverend Falwell and some of his
parishioners met with a couple hundred gay activists at his Thomas Road
Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mr. Falwell shook hands, he hugged,
he sat down and listened as gays presented themselves as people -- with
families, jobs, and faith.
"As followers of Jesus Christ," said the Reverend Falwell, "we extend our
hand of friendship, we seek understanding, we commit to care, and we resolve
to love."
"If anyone has taken a negative stand against this lifestyle, it was me. So
it was up to me to take the first step in establishing a new direction."
The meeting was planned by Mr. Falwell and the Reverend Mel White, the
leader of a group of religious gays called Soulforce. Mr. White had helped
the Reverends Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Colonel Oliver North to
write their autobiographies. When Mr. White came to terms with his
homosexuality in 1991, he says most of his former allies would not return
his phone calls. But not Mr. Falwell.
"We argued," he said. "But we talked."
Since the meeting in Lynchburg, the Reverend Falwell has ordered his various
religious programs to no longer refer to homosexuality as "perverted" or
"deviant" in their literature. He has criticized fellow evangelicals,
including himself, for what he called, "reckless and dangerous
language" -- and suggested that such talk may have been a spark in anti-gay
violence, like the beating that killed Mathew Shepard in Wyoming.
Mr. Falwell says he has not changed his fundamental view that homosexuality,
like alcoholism, is a fault that can be repaired by prayer. But he sounds
like a man who is opening his heart, rather than letting it harden -- a
clergyman who is challenging souls to change, including his own; not a
politician thumping the same old points.
The reaction from the Reverend's own followers has been mixed. His friend,
the Reverend Pat Robertson has been critical. But this week, Bob Record,
president of the Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, a group
that has consistently regarded homosexuality as a sin, said, "At first, I
thought what Jerry did was crazy. But then, I prayed. And then, I decided,
it's a class act. It's the right thing to do."
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