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Saturday, February 10 2007 @ 06:35 AM Central Standard Time
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Though he would make no endorsements before the primaries, influential evangelical leader Jerry Falwell is rallying American voters to elect a new religious, rightist Republican to replace President George W. Bush in the 2008 presidential polls.
"My goal is to do my little part to preserve America for our children and grandchildren, the kind of America that I grew up in," Falwell told Reuters in an interview.
Falwell, who helped propel the rise of the religious right in the US, is now focusing on voter registration drives and rallying the voters to elect a religious and rightist president.
The 73-year-old evangelist had spoken with many of the leading Republican hopefuls for the party's 2008 presidential nomination — including former Massachusetts governor Gov. Mitt Romney and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback.
Arizona Senator and Republican front-runner for the 2008 crown John McCain pointedly also spoke at Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia last year.
"I like every one of them," Falwell told Reuters on the sidelines of an evangelist conference in Dallas.
As a Baptist preacher, televangelist and university chancellor, Falwell has used his multi-layered platform to promote the US religious right — a movement that seeks to redraw US public policy along biblical lines and is associated with the Republican Party.
Critics contend that the religious right wants to impose an intolerant theocracy in the United States.
But supporters argue that it enjoys broad popularity in a country with 60 million evangelicals and that it harkens to the country's Christian roots.
Evangelical Christians have had a growing impact on America's political landscape, in part because adherents believe conservative Christian values should have a place in politics — and they support politicians who agree with them.
Neo-conservatives, who laid out the intellectual underpinnings for Bush's foreign policy, essentially believe in America's ability to shape the world in its own image.
They see the United States as a "benevolent hegemony" with the power to compel other nations to adopt liberal democracy.
That ideology was extended to Iraq which was supposed to become ultimately a bastion of democracy in the Middle East.
But after the Republicans' midterm election defeat and Iraq's chaos, the neo-conservatives have begun to back away from the neo-con label.
Righteous US
Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority political movement in 1979, said he has been seeking to restore the United States' moral righteousness.
"I think we got the social and moral issues on the front burner," he said.
"But while we have made progress ... we have not won any of the battles yet."
The right-wing evangelist is also eyeing at least one more conservative judge on the Supreme Court.
"It is a long road back. We are at least one US Supreme Court Justice short of a socially conservative court."
Falwell said Republicans needed to be in battle mode as he expected Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to carry the Democratic banner in the 2008 elections.
"She would most certainly be a formidable opponent. She is a bright lady and she has the No. 1 campaign manager in the world (former President Bill Clinton). If she can keep his attention focused, he can do her a lot of good," he said.
Falwell has been a controversial figure in the country.
He provoked a storm of derision when he said gays, lesbians and abortionists were partly to blame for the 9/11 attacks.
He was later quoted by CNN as saying that only terrorists were to blame but he believed attempts to secularize America had prompted "God to lift the veil of protection" that had shielded the United States from attacks in the past.
Falwell has also pronounced a series of anti-Muslim rants. He had told a CBS's "60 Minutes" interview that he had concluded after reading books on Islam that "(Prophet) Muhammad was a terrorist."
He, however, backtracked on his remarks and apologized to US Muslims after an angry outcry. |
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