An acorn, the adage states, does not fall far from the tree.
That’s certainly the case with Jerry Falwell Jr. Co-heir to the fundamentalist empire in Lynchburg, Va., created by his late father, Falwell Jr. is turning out to be a clone of his dad – especially when it comes to partisan politics.
Falwell Sr. was notorious for his partisan behavior. He enjoyed having aspiring senators, governors and presidents come to him, seeking an endorsement.
Sometimes he went too far. In 1993, Falwell Sr. had to pay the IRS $50,000 in back taxes after his tax-exempt “Old Time Gospel Hour” broadcast ministry waded into some congressional elections. The ministry’s tax exemption for the years 1986 and 1987 was retroactively revoked.
In 1997, Falwell attempted to intervene in a Virginia state election by urging pastors to stand in their pulpits and give “personal” endorsements of a candidate for attorney general. Americans United promptly notified the IRS, and the scheme went nowhere.
Falwell Sr. died in May of 2007, and now Americans United is left to tangle with Falwell Jr., who serves as chancellor of Liberty University. (Another Falwell son, Jonathan, got Thomas Road Baptist Church and the TV ministry.)
Late in 2007, Falwell used Liberty resources to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. AU reported him to the IRS.
Recently, he struck again. This time, Falwell signed off on a scheme by the university to curtail the activities of a College Democrats club that had formed on campus. The club was denied university recognition – even though a Republican club has existed for years with university blessing.
Sounds kind of partisan, right?
Americans United again acted, reporting the tax-exempt Liberty University to the IRS.
Falwell’s response to this was to order his minions to cook up an IRS complaint against Americans United!
The complaint looks like something thrown together over the weekend by overworked first-year law students at Falwell’s school. It contains a number of glaring errors. For example, the complaint accuses Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn of having attended two speeches by Barack Obama at religious meetings during the presidential race. Lynn wasn’t at either event.
The complaint also asserts that Americans United reports tons of conservative churches to the IRS for politicking but only a few liberal ones. Wrong again. We’ve reported plenty of churches for endorsing Democrats.
AU is not at all worried about Liberty’s complaint to the IRS. It’s a sloppy piece of crude revenge. AU has been rigorously non-partisan. We’ve never endorsed or opposed a candidate or intervened in an election.
Falwell’s attack on Americans United is a desperate ploy to shift attention away from his own misdeeds. It will not work.
To Jerry Jr. we can only say: AU has its house in order. Isn’t it time you took a look at your own?
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